AI will Do To Healthcare What Blockbuster Did to Netflix
The AI wave is coming or infact it’s already here. Now the average doctor in the UK thinks they are immune to AI “taking their job” because “you can’t replace people interactions with a computer”
PS: I’m trying a new content style where I “thought dump” and I hope this makes sense for you. I’d appreciate some feedback at the end!
I think this is a really naive statement to make and AI will do to medicine what Netflix did to blockbuster
Hear me out…
It’s very clear to see that the rise of AI is unprecedented. Developments that once took decades and now taking years. Teams are doing more with less and the world is changing right before us.
One of the biggest industries in most country’s is healthcare. It’s also fairly safe to say that there is so much room for improvement in healthcare and that’s exactly where AI comes in. To oppose doctors statements about “who’s going to do the human aspect” in the current model of healthcare doctors hardly spend more time with their computers than they do seeing patients.
Broadly speaking for every 1 hour a doctor spends with a patient they spend 2 doing clerical tasks https://time.com/6313270/doctors-overworked-patients-access/ or in this case or the average contact time is 4.9 minutes per patient https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8198090/.
Let’s assume you’re looking after 20 patients, 1hr 38 minutes of your shift is direct patient time…
This is exactly where I see AI coming in and unfortunately I think a lot of healthcare will be slow to see this change coming. Some of it is denial, denial that something can do their job better. Some of it is an assumption that AI is not going to improve exponentially, it might not work today as I’m writing this but there is nothing to suggest it won’t be working by December 2025.
If we go to first principles, in an ideal health system you want your doctors to spend as much time as possible understanding and caring for their patients. You don’t want them sitting behind a desk summarising notes. AI will be tremendous at doing these repetitive tasks.
The flip side is that even if doctors and health systems dont embrace healthcare, patients definitely will. Back at first principles when you’re unwell you want help, we’ve seen with the rise of Dr. Google in previous years that people will take the help from the place that’s readily available. With new features such as AI summaries on Google, getting your health info, assisted by AI is becoming easier and easier. Now imagine if you can integrate a system with your data from your wearables such as an Apple Watch. Arguably your “AI doctor” will have so much data about you that it can personalised and help you as an individual!
I’m excited for AI in healthcare, I think it’ll increase efficiency and fundamentally provide a better experience overall for the patient. This comes at a cost though and potentially the cost can be the role of the doctor as we know it today changing…
I hope this made sense, I decided to just share my thoughts as they came rather than try to refine it. Do you prefer this raw approach or a more refined approach
While AI integration into healthcare spaces is all but inevitable, many healthcare systems are still running on outdated hardware and software. This issue could be solved with cloud integration, but it then begs the question of data privacy and protection. We know these companies can and will cut corners where necessary to turn a profit, so how can we be sure that this AI advent won't come at the cost of patients' rights to confidentiality?