BBC: A future without doctors?

Are you feeling well, Sam? No headache or sore throat?

No, I feel fine, thanks, Neil. Why do you ask?

Well, I've been reading some inspirational stories about the doctors and nurses fighting Covid. When I was a boy, I always dreamed of becoming a doctor. 

Ah, I see. Have you ever been in hospital?

Yes, I have, and I remember the nurse's bedside manner- you kno, the kind and caring way that doctors and nurses treat  people who are ill. 

Nowadays, more and more of the jobs that humands do are being carried out by machines. But I doubt that  a doctor's bedside manner could easily be replaced by a robot. 

In this programme, we'll be discussing whether the revolution in artificial intelligence, oftern shortened to 'AI', could replace human doctors and nurses. We'll be asking: can you imagine a future without doctors?

In fact, machines are already doing some of the jobs traditionally done by doctors- scaning people's bodies to detect skin cancer, for example. 

Yes, that's true, Sam, and it links to my quiz question which is about human body's largest organ- but now how much skin does the average about have? Is it:

a) 2 square meters   b) 3 square meters   or c)  4 square meters?

Of course our skin gets loose as we age, but I can't believe there's 3 square meters of it. I'll say the answer a) 2 square meters. 

OK, we'll find out if that's correct later. Every year in the UK over 5 million people are treated for skin cancer. Catch it early and your chances of survival are inceased. 

Usually a skin specialist, or dermatologist, will examine your skin using a handheld microscope. But in 2017, a team of researchers at Stanford Medical School made an exciting announcement. 

Here's Oxford University researcher Daniel Susskind, telling BBC World Service programme, The Big Idea, what the medics at Stanford had invented:

A team of researchers at Stanford last year announced the developement of a system that, if you give a it a photo of a freckle it can tell you as accurately as twenty- one leading dermatologists whether or not that freckle is cancerous. 

The Stanford medical team had invented an AI systme to analyze freckles- small brown spots found on people's skin, especially on pale skin. 

As it turned out the AI programme was better than human doctors at telling whether a freckle was hamless or cancerous- connected to some type of cancer. 

So, it seems that artificial intelligence is already replacing humans when it comes to detecing cancer- and doing a better job of it. 

But Daniel Susskind isn't convinced. One reason is that AI systmes still need humans to programme them- and as it turns out, knowing exactly how doctors detect illness remains something of a mystery. 

Here's Daniel Susskind again in conversation with BBC World Service programme, The Big Idea:

If you ask a doctor how it is they make a diagnosis, they might be able to point you to particularly revealing parts of a reference book or give you a few rules of thumb, but ultimately they'd struggle... they'd say again it requires  things like creativity and judgment, and these things are very difficult to articulate- and so traditionally it's been thought very hard to automate- if a human being can't explain how they do these special things, where on earth do we begin in writing insturctions for a machine to follow?  (articulate- 명확하게 표현하다)

Most doctors find it difficult to explain how they make a diagnosis- their judgement about what someone's particular sickness is, made by examining them. 

Diagnosing someone's illness is complicated, but there are some rules of thumb. A rules of thumb is a practical, but apporoximate way of doing something. 

For example, when cooking, a good rule of thumb is two portions of water to one portion of rice. 

Exactly, and because identifying sickness is so difficult, Daniel says" where on earth do we begin writing instructions for a machine" We use phrases like where, how or what on earth to show feeling like anger, surprise or disbelief. 

I might show surprise by asking Sam, 'how on earth did you know the answer to that?'

Ha ha! I geuess you're talking about your quiz question, Neil? And you needn't be so surprised- I'm naturally brainy!

Of course, you are. In may quiz question I asked Sam how much skin there is on an adult human body. 

And I said it was a) 2 square meters. 

Which was ... the correct answer! With your brain, I think you'd make a good doctor, Sam, and I'm sure you'd have a good bedside manner, too. 

You mean, the kind and caring way that doctors and nurses treat their patients. OK, let's recap the rest of the vocabulary, starting with freckle- a small brown spot on someone's skin.