Posts in Tom Davenport
Deskilling Healthcare: Will doctors and nurses remember how to care for patients?

I am most concerned about this issue in healthcare—perhaps obviously, because de-skilled clinicians could endanger human health. The other general reason why healthcare professionals might let AI de-skill themselves is that they are under considerable pressure to be more productive—at least in the U.S. The average patient visit with a physician is only about 15 minutes, and there are temptations galore to take AI-enabled shortcuts. If AI can easily summarize patient visits in clinical notes, diagnose diseases and communicate with patients about them, and help navigate highly bureaucratic insurance processes, why shouldn’t doctors and nurses take advantage of this capability?

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