Zachary Szelc
It’s Not a Doctor. It’s a Tool
AI is a relatively new technology that can feel intimidating to those unfamiliar with it.
However, I believe it has the potential to become an incredibly valuable resource in the medical
field. People speak about its limitations, legal and ethical issues that are concerns for its
adaptation in the medical field.
Anyone familiar with AI chat bots like ChatGPT should agree that it has its uses for
coming up with ideas or looking up information about a topic. Of course it has its limitations. It
needs lots of context on very specific questions and when writing, it can have some grammatical
errors. It is important to emphasize that AI should be used as a tool. The two first sentences of
the introduction had changes made to it using ChatGPT but the rest of the paragraph is
untouched. Some may argue that it did all of the work, but the introduction was originally written
out by myself and the AI made changes whether I included it or not.
AI definitely has limitations as previously stated. People say there are no exceptions for
its uses in the medical field because of those limitations. In Sidra Nasir’s view, “However, it has
certain limitations including the inability to understand the full context, lack of clinical judgment,
and reliance on training data. Risks involve potential misinformation, over-reliance on AI, ethical
and legal concerns, and the absence of emotional support.”(Nasir 6). Nasir spoke about the lack
of context and clinical judgment but forgot about its use as a tool. Doctors should be picking up
on what is being missed by the AI to make final judgment calls in the field. On one hand AI
makes lots of mistakes due to lack of information and context but this could happen to doctors
as well. Nasir's perspective sets the stage for a broader discussion on the ethical and legal
implications of AI in healthcare, prompting us to consider the balance between its potential as a
powerful tool and the risks it brings.
There is a question about what happens when things go wrong in Healthcare. But who
takes responsibility when these things happen? The Frontiers in Surgery noted, “The use of new
technology raises concerns about the possibility that it will become a new source of inaccuracy
and data breach. In the high-risk area of healthcare, mistakes can have severe consequences
for the patient who is the victim of this error.” (Naik 3) Breaking this apart, the two main concerns
spoken about are inaccuracy and mistakes have consequences. Inaccuracy happens in the
medical field all the time which happens because of lack of information. By using an AI that
contains a lot of information about previous cases and patients, it can make better suggestions
to the doctor or nurse about what conditions the patients could have. It is important to highlight
the word “suggestions” since it shouldn’t be a replacement for humans. Furthermore, the
responsibility ultimately falls to the doctor using the tool. Just as a carpenter wouldn’t blame his
tools for a mistake, doctors must ensure the use of AI is applied ethically and accurately. These
considerations need to address ethical dilemmas surrounding patient data use, which leads to
the next issue.
I can agree that using private patient information is a sensitive subject. Although if AI can
enhance diagnosis and treatment I believe it is a worthy trade off to use that information for the
better. Shuping Wen says that collecting and processing this sensitive data requires governance
(Wen 4). She was pushing for the implementation of AI for diagnosing and treating cancer in
children. There needs to be some change that allows the use of this data for the good of the
people. The more information the AI has the better results you will get out of it.
AI, while still a developing technology that holds immense potential in the medical field
despite its limitations and associated ethical concerns. Doctors bring critical context, judgment,
and human empathy to the table—elements that AI lacks. Although when used correctly it could
help make the medical field more efficient and more accurate. The challenges associated with
AI like issues with data privacy and accountability are not overwhelming. The future of AI in
medicine is not about replacing doctors but augmenting their capabilities. Given this, do you
want to pave the way for a healthier future?
Citations:
Naik, Nithesh, et al. "Legal and ethical consideration in artificial intelligence in healthcare: who
takes responsibility?." Frontiers in surgery 9 (2022): 862322.
Nasir, Sidra, Rizwan Ahmed Khan, and Samita Bai. "Ethical framework for harnessing the power
of ai in healthcare and beyond." IEEE Access 12 (2024): 31014-31035.
Wen, Shuping, et al. "A Practical Guide to Apply AI in Childhood Cancer: Data Collection and AI
Model Implementation." EJC Paediatric Oncology (2024): 100197.