Medical Artificial Intelligence
Large language model use continues to pop up in surprising and interesting ways. The New York Times reports on ways doctors have been using these models.
In one survey, 85 percent of patients reported that a doctor’s compassion was more important than waiting time or cost. In another survey, nearly three-quarters of respondents said they had gone to doctors who were not compassionate. And a study of doctors’ conversations with the families of dying patients found that many were not empathetic.
Enter chatbots, which doctors are using to find words to break bad news and express concerns about a patient’s suffering, or to just more clearly explain medical recommendations.
Breaking bad news to patients, and explaining things to them in a way that is empathetic and that they can digest easily, is difficult. The harder the news, the harder I imagine coming up with the right words would be. This feels like a perfect use-case for large language models. As an aid and supplement to communication. Not as a replacement for anything or as a tool to generate more revenue.