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Dr Chatbot is patient and kind. Should doctors fear this rival?
Many turn to chatbots when they feel doctors are dismissing their concerns. Instead of resenting this, doctors should use AI as an aid.
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More people are drawn to chatbots for medical advice because they come across as more patient and empathetic than human physicians, says the writer.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: ISTOCKPHOTO
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The patient sat across from me with a thick folder of test results, medical reports and referral letters from multiple specialists. It was a record of years of consultations and a ledger of the time and money spent in pursuit of an answer.
He came to see me – a psychiatrist – at the insistence of his other specialists though he felt insulted when they told him that his symptoms were “psychological”. He carried a steady conviction, like a heavy weight inside him, that something serious had been missed. With dry humour, he told me he had come to dread the words he heard so often from doctors: “I can’t find anything wrong with you,” and he could sense the exasperation that came with those words.
