Future of Mechanization in Medicine

[Arkangeloid]

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There's a post trending right now in the Medicine Subreddit arguing that in the future, non-procedural specialties will feel the brunt of mechanization in the decades to come, pushing doctors out of medicine and into administrative roles. Is this overly pessimistic, or does it have some shred of accuracy?

 

[crock1255]

A few threads dealing with this already. It's going to happen to some degree. It's hard t say what fields. Computers are pretty good at highly specialized repetitive tasks - maybe something like pathology or radiology? Less good at non-repetitive tasks with high variability - say IM? But then you had mid-level creep so who knows. I don't think it'll be as bad as what happened to the rust belt, at least not for a long, long, long time. I'm less convinced with what things like Watson will bring - not so much because of the technology but more because of the studies it's based on 🙂 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/lies-damned-lies-and-medical-science/308269/

 

[Arkangeloid]

All those threads are years old, and I didn't want to give them several-year-bumps

 

[crock1255]

All those threads are years old, and I didn't want to give them several-year-bumps

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=983768
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=986521
This one touches a bit on it:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=860795

Sorry they're all my posts, but I've been really interested in this topic

 

[Kahreek]

When i was asked what I would be if I wasnt studying to be a physician. I answered: mechanic.
They all laughed and said: wow those are very similar fields (sarcasm).
Car mechanics has differential diagnosis and examination.

 

[Anastomoses]

Either way, we'll adapt 🙂

 

[CherryRedDracul]

Either way, we'll adapt 🙂

This. The sky is always falling but we eventually find other ways to survive.