AI medical tools move closer to the clinic

Medical Protection Society calls for law to be overhauled to help medics avoid liability for errors made by technology Doctors and the NHS could be sued for medical negligence over mistakes made by artificial intelligence tools used in diagnosing patients and suggesting their treatment, ministers are being warned. Under the law as it stands, medics and the health service can be held liable for patients being harmed or dying even if it was AI that made the errors that resulted in their suffering. Continue reading...

OpenEvidence, a fast-growing start-up, is using artificial intelligence to help doctors find answers to clinical questions for diagnosis and treatment.

Pennsylvania sued an AI company, saying its chatbots illegally hold themselves out as doctors and are deceiving users into thinking they are getting medical advice from a licensed professional.

A new study from Harvard Medical School indicates that AI can outperform doctors in initial assessments in emergency care, according to The Guardian. The study, published in the journal Science, compared AI tools with doctors in triage situations — the process in which patients are sorted and prioritized, and where quick decisions must be made based on limited information. The results show that the AI system identified the correct or nearly correct diagnosis in 67% of cases, compared to 50% to 55% percent for doctors. When more detailed patient data was available, the AI’s accuracy increased to 82%, while the doctors’ accuracy ranged from 70% to 79%. The AI, based on OpenAI’s model o1, also performed better when it came to developing treatment plans. In a test using clinical cases, the AI achieved 89% accuracy, while doctors using traditional tools such as search engines reached 34%. However, the researchers emphasized that the results do not mean AI can outright replace doctors. The s

AI may help doctors avoid missed diagnoses, but it still needs real-world testing and human oversight before it can guide patient care.