Software Assistants for Doctors Are Making Progress
1st January 2014
Doctors have long been in the high-stakes information management business. They must quickly sort through a patient’s symptoms, comments, test results, records and history to come up with a diagnosis. The physician brings to each diagnostic encounter a storehouse of knowledge and experience, all that he or she has read and learned over years.
The information overload for doctors is only growing worse. Medical information is estimated to be doubling every five years, and surveys show most doctors can find only a few hours a month to read medical journals. So it is not surprising that automated assistance for doctors has been pursued by researchers and companies for many years. Decision-making in medicine, after all, involves not just time and money, but also human lives.
A worthy goal, but a frustratingly difficult one. Yet in the last few years, real progress is being made in what is called “clinical decision support” technology. And the story in medicine is the same as in so many applications of modern computing: advances in sensors for measuring, calculating power and artificial-intelligence software are opening the door to a new generation of smarter tools.
And about fargin time, too.