Medical Malpractice by a Computer?

As our society becomes increasingly more automated and computer dependent, it’s not really all that far-fetched to imagine a computer practicing medicine.  When that day comes, what will medical malpractice claims look like?  Of course, the practice of medicine is already quite dependent on computer technology as a source of diagnostic information from blood work to MRIs.  Robots are used regularly in many surgical procedures and can even be operated by a physician on a patient across the world.  But, I wonder what will happen when computers become more than a source of information or a treatment tool – when we rely on them to make informed treatment decisions based on the wealth of information they can consume and digest in a nanosecond.  Well, we might be getting a glimpse of the future sooner than you think.

You may recall the IBM supersomputer Watson, an artifical-intelligence computer system which became a Jeopardy champion.  Now, its brains are now being put to work by one the nation’s largest health insurers which is filling its memory with vast amounts of medical information.  Watson can assess 200,000,000 pages from a patient’s electronic medical records, medical literature and insurance claims data, in 3 seconds, providing information based on that assessment to help physicians diagnose intricate conditions such as cancer, diabetes and kidney disease.   That’s some bedside manner.

So what happens if Watson gets it wrong?  For now, it can’t replace the experience and versatility of a human being, but as time goes on, anything seems possible.  If the Watson of the future gets it wrong, perhaps a jury of its “peers” will decide if it’s medical malpractice in a case argued by computer lawyers.

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