Watson will replace me? Not a chance!

By PO-HAO CHEN, MD Arthur C. Clark and Stanley Kubrick predicted supercomputers more intelligent than humans.  In 2001: A Space Odyssey, the HAL states, with typical human immodesty, “The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made… We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error.” Forty years later, IBM’s Watson pummeled humans in Jeopardy – a distinctly human game. Watson is a big shot oncology fellow at MD Anderson – he is already impressing nurses and the attendings.  The supercomputer presented patients in the morning rounds, parsed data within seconds, and made few mistakes. The real oncology fellow, the human I mean, flabbergasted by the efficiency of his binary colleague, relayed to the Washington Post, “Even if you work all night, it would be impossible to be able to put this much information together like that.” Watson doesn’t have to worry about duty hour restrictions. CEO of IBM, Ginni Rometty, claims that Watson 2.0 will interpret medical imaging like a radiologist.  In its third iteration, the supercomputer will “debate and reason.” Why hire radiologists who sap productivity with lunch breaks and sleep?  Watson will never complain about the dearth of vegan food in the cafeteria, never get tired, and – best of all – never whine about Medicare reimbursement cuts. But forgive me for snoring at night without fear of the Robo-Radiologist. The reasons ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Tech THCB Source Type: blogs