Sunday, February 24, 2013

Coming: Computerized Medical Diagnosis

Introduction

Yesterday’s blog was about the cognitive bias of anchoring (also called focalism), in which the option or figure seen first commands such attention that results are skewed. This bias is particularly important in the medical profession, especially in making an accurate diagnosis.

The March, 2013, issue of The Atlantic discussses the potential for using artificial intelligence to perform patient diagnosis. IBM’s "Watson" supercomputer, the same device that defeated prior champions on the game show Jeopardy, is now being fed case histories to see if it can learn to diagnose medical problems.

It appears that supercomputers are going to have a major part in the future of medicine, perhaps transforming treatment and diagnosis in a manner as radical as automation has effected so many other professions. The link to the complete article is here:
 
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/03/the-robot-will-see-you-now/309216/

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