Zachary Melton ENGL 1102 Mr. Borrero 3/20/2013 C.A.P.

Essay When you think of a doctor, what do you see? A middle aged man or woman dressed in white asking you questions and diagnosing your symptoms? Soon that image could change for people as technology is quickly taking a foothold in the medical industry. As Helene Pavlov's article titled Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Your Family Doctor? suggests, artificial intelligence and machines will take over a lot of the medical industry from scanning X-rays and test results to directly diagnosing patients based on symptoms. While Pavlov views this as a negative step in the medical field, I happen to disagree and agree at the same time and think that artificial intelligence is growing to be more than up to the task to aiding doctors, but not completely taking over. However, more than artificial intelligence is affecting the medical industry. Digital culture (such as websites) and medical technology is impacting the medical field as well. As a medical patient, why should you care? Technology is being used to enhance many aspects of the medical field from managing patient data, research, to impacting our health care system (Salman). By the end of this article you will know what AI, digital culture, and medical technology is to medicine as well as why I believe these technologies are necessary to the medical field. Hopefully by reading this you obtain a deeper knowledge of the technology behind the medical field and aren't intimidated by its advances. It's important to know a little bit of background information on artificial intelligence in order to fully understand how it affects the medical field. So what exactly is AI, or artificial intelligence? When talking about AI there are a lot of different things you could talk about. For the purposes of this article, we'll define it as an attempt to replicate intelligence in machines and computer programs. If you're looking for a more technical definition, Istvan S. N. Berkeley from the University of Louisiana at

Lafayette defines artificial intelligence as the study of man-made computational devices and system which can be made to act in a manner which we would be inclined to call intelligent (Berkeley). That's nice and all, but how is this linked to the medical field? Artificial intelligence is used for many different things in the medical field from databases, to image processing, to aiding doctors in diagnoses (Rastgarpour 5). Artificial intelligence is even used to help train medical students while they're in school such as with the famous IBM Watson computer ("Cleveland Clinic and IBM join forces). It's easy now to see that artificial intelligence is no minor player when thinking about doctors and the medical field as it covers many different areas. In her article, Pavlov questions artificial intelligence's ability to evaluate abnormal patterns, or to self-aid a patient which to a degree she would be correct. While I don't believe artificial intelligence can completely replace doctors, it still is a vital tool in the medical field. As I said previously, AI plays a hand in a variety of different aspects of the medical field that have become more than just making it easier; it has become a necessary part of the field. Let's take IBM Watson as an example since I've already mentioned it. Currently, Watson is being used to help medical students by applying their knowledge using Watson's vast database technology to 'diagnose' patients given their symptoms (Cleveland Clinic and IBM join forces). This is important because, according to IBM, by 2020, doctors will face 200 times the amount of medical data and facts that a human could possibly process (Cleveland Clinic and IBM join forces). Given the vast knowledge the field holds, its becoming a need to have the help of artificial intelligence there to help students learn everything that is different from the memorizing game. There could even be potential for this type of technology to be used by actual doctors to help diagnose actual patients since it's unlikely for a human to remember every possible illness someone might have. This is where the human and artificial intelligence collaborate to advance the medical field efficiency. I agree with Pavlov when she argues that artificial intelligence do not have the right to diagnose patients on their own (Pavlov). I believe a doctor holds authority over the program to diagnose the patient and treat them, and the artificial intelligence is there as a tool to help

them. Another example of artificial intelligence that I believe to be crucial to the medical field is called Neural Networks. This artificial intelligence attempts to provide diagnoses through finding previous patient records and comparing them to the current patient (Nicks).

Outline Introduction Purpose is to convince the reader that technology is needed, but meant to be used as a tool to aid doctors and not completely replace them. Targeting US patients and producers of these technologies. Paragraph 1 What is AI? How does AI play into the medical field? Databases, X-rays, diagnoses How is it necessary to the field? IBM Watson It's not meant to completely replace a doctor It can't make diagnoses on it's own Paragraph 2 What is Digital Culture? How does it play into the medical field? WEBMD How is it necessary to the field? Gives people an understanding of what COULD be their problem It's not meant to completely replace a doctor It can be bad for someone to diagnose themselves using the internet. Someone should contact a doctor if they think they have a serious problem because it could be fatal if not treated correctly. Symptoms alone might not be enough to diagnose a patient. Tests might have to be done to know for sure Paragraph 3 What is medical technology? How does it play into the medical field? Surgery: Cyberknife, NueroArm|| Rehabilitation: Exoskeleton || Education How is it necessary to the field? Provides highly advanced tools for doctors to use to increase efficiency and ease to which they diagnose and treat patients It's not meant to completely replace a doctor the doctor is the one to treat a patient with this technology. It it a tool for them to use. You wouldn't want a machine performing surgery on you, would you?