Artificial Intelligence is the new zeitgeist. Medicine and healthcare are no exception. AI is already changing how doctors record their consultation notes and is speeding up the reading of X-rays and scans. This book asks the challenging question: could AI perform better than doctors?
Most doctors will agree with Charlotte Blease when she outlines the benefits of AI-driven technology for the delivery of healthcare. However, many will baulk at the prospect of being replaced by Dr Bot, an AI physician of the future.
From the outset, the author is careful not to antagonise doctors: she empathises with their plight of being under-resourced and facing unprecedented levels of stress, dealing with rising patient numbers and ever-developing medical knowledge. But at the same time, she points out that they are all too human, prone to a range of biases affecting the care that patients receive.
Can we improve patient experience and alleviate the burdens of doctors at the same time? Blease cites evidence showing that, when interacting with a chatbot, patients actually reveal more about their medical problems. Addressing the issue of diagnosis and treatment, she argues that a more equal marriage of humanity and technology will result in a collaborative dynamic between doctors and digital tools that may benefit patients.
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The book concludes by looking at empathy, and questions whether Dr Chatbot can offer this “soft skill” as well as a human doctor can. Many doctors (this reviewer included) see this as a fundamental weak link in AI-provided healthcare. But Blease cites research evidence to show that patients rated a human-plus-AI approach to empathy more highly than that provided by a human alone. And her own research found that ChatGPT-written clinical notes were a richer source of empathy cues than those authored by a practising GP.
However, the recent underwhelming launch of the latest OpenAI iteration, GPT-5, suggests progress is slowing. Company chief executive Sam Altman told reporters that chatbots such as GPT-5 are “not going to get much better”.
To what extent this may delay what the book asserts – that AI, handled with care, could emerge as the most reliable physician in history – remains to be seen.
