There can be a variety of interactions a patient can have throughout a hospital stay, some of which include the following: ambulatory service to and sometimes from the hospital, exchange of personal information, interactions with nurses, and interactions with doctors, all of which are currently being technologically altered. The first aspect has already proven to be revolutionized with the invention of autonomous vehicles. Joshua Neally, a lawyer from Springfield, Missouri, was on his way to work one morning when suddenly he felt a pain in his abdomen, accompanied with shortness of breath, all the while still driving. He knew something was off, and so he set his Tesla Model X’s autopilot function to the nearest hospital. Neally was diagnosed and treated for a pulmonary embolism. The vehicle, which he had just luckily received a few weeks prior to his near death experience, has been credited with saving the man’s life. After being interviewed by The Telegraph [UK], the man said that in hindsight he would probably not have survived if he had called and subsequently waited for an ambulance. His sharp chest pains would likely have led to Neally fainting at the wheel, before an ambulance could arrive. Even if Neally had fainted while driving, the car’s additional smart technology would have sensed when he stopped touching the steering wheel for an extended period of time. The car would then come to a stop on the side of the road. However stopping on the shoulder could have resulted in a much worse situation, if an ambulance could not reach him in time. (Robbins, 2016)
The replacement of ambulatory services by autonomous vehicles seems quite feasible in today’s world, but despite the expense, it certainly has its drawbacks. Traditional ambulance service has many flaws; in providing a service to help treat people, it runs the risk of making its drivers ill. Ambulances have several electric run machines within its walls. This requires ambulances to have a constant flow of electric energy, which implies running even when idle. This not only has seen the rise of rising fuel expenses, but also harsh emissions of nitrogen oxide, benzene and sulfur dioxide. These gases are unfortunately taken up by ambulances’ most frequented guests-that is, the workers. Studies have shown that paramedics and drivers contracted asthma, heart disease, and cancer, and the link to their ambulatory exposure and their diseases were later confirmed. As a result new ways for ambulatory services to function are being developed. But for now, the main priority involves helping to transport and treat people, rather than causing further illness for its front line crusaders.
Another portion of a hospital’s role is to serve as an honest place for patients seeking medical information. People in search of new, safer ways to replace doctors can rest assured that the solution is not so far at all; since the creation of the Internet the accessibility of medical information has significantly improved, but has not necessarily involved truthful information. The new source for medical advice has a dual nature, since it gives patients more independence in seeking out answers to their questions, but does not always give the correct answers. The Internet is by far the most cost effective modern way to find out general information without paying a visit to a doctor, especially for those who cannot afford health insurance. A recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center stated that 59 percent of the adult population in the United States uses the Internet to look up health information. What is even more interesting was that 41 percent who sought out professional help said that the physician confirmed the diagnosis they had already made from their own online research (Castillo, 2013). One of the largest online databases for health related questions is Web MD, which now has a symptom checker. In a study conducted by Harvard Medical School, online symptom checkers prompt users to list their symptoms only to receive a computer algorithm generated answer.
The researchers made a list of symptoms based on 45 illnesses and, although extremely accessible, the online checkers are only accurate 34 percent of the time (Mach, 2015). The bottom line: “It is not nearly as important for a patient with fever, headache, stiff neck and confusion to know whether they have meningitis or encephalitis as it is for them to know that they should get to a doctor quickly,” senior study author Ateev Mehrotra, associate professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School, said in a statement. Experts agree that this is a first generation stage of new technology that could eventually live up to its full potential, with considerable time to technologically progress and improve.
For the third world, accuracy of a diagnosis is the least of problems, for time constraints and accessibility are often the greatest obstacles to even entering a hospital. For example, in China thousands of people stand in line for days in hopes to see a physician, let alone be cured of an illness. To combat this, several healthcare apps have launched, some of which are free and widely accessible. Ping An Good Doctor app is one of the few free apps that provide free consultations from almost 1000 physicians. Additionally, the internationally dynamic service and value provider Alibaba has also created its own stake in reducing the nightmare that healthcare seekers face in China. Their app allows patients to book appointments, pay medical bills, and even interact with doctors after their appointments. The company’s main rival, Tencent, has invested $100 million dollars in a major doctor appointment website Guahao.com, which already has 37 million users (Yan 2016).
An additional layer of threat to the role of doctors as diagnostic overlords comes from a highly advanced robotic system that can correctly diagnose a patient within minutes. In Japan, the leading artificial intelligence supercomputer showcased diagnosis abilities of its own when it successfully diagnosed a 60-year-old female patient with a rare form of leukemia. This news was revolutionary, since the case had stumped doctors for months. The supercomputer, IBM’s Watson, who had previously debunked several contestants on the American television show Jeopardy, did the diagnosis within ten minutes. It even suggested a new treatment that had been proven to be more effective after sifting through over 20 million cancer research papers (Otake, 2016).
