Artificial Intelligence Is Going To Have A "Hard Time" Replacing Nurses
Artificial Intelligence Is Going To Have A "Hard Time" Replacing Nurses
As artificial intelligence infiltrates healthcare, how long will it take for AI to displace doctors and nurses? And should we be worried?
Welcome to another edition of “The Digital Health Report.”
In the last edition, I wrote about how AI can help Africa battle “brain drain” by bringing about “brain gain” with the help of digital health technologies.
Read it here
In this edition, I look into a somewhat controversial topic.
Many don’t want to talk or write about it, but we must discuss issues like these.
Talking and writing about them will make us understand the role of artificial intelligence in our lives as professionals and how we can begin to evolve and adjust to accommodate advanced technologies in the future of work.
You may not completely agree with my opinion, and I’ll also be delighted to hear your view.
Drop a comment in the section after this article, and let’s share ideas.
And don’t forget to subscribe below.
The Digital Health Report is for healthcare professionals and digital health enthusiasts who want to understand better digital health technologies.
No jargon, just simple language anyone can easily understand.
The global medical community acknowledges that AI can efficiently handle more than 80% of physicians' daily administrative tasks (mainly documentation and communication). And there's plenty of evidence and research to back this narrative up.
[I have included some helpful links to research articles and papers about AI & Healthcare at the end of this article🤭].
Let's start with Google's adventure in healthcare AI.
According to reports, Google's Med Palm 2 can read X-rays and answer patients' questions.
In the future (which is pretty close), physicians who do not incorporate AI into their daily work will have a hard time keeping up (worse, they could be displaced or replaced).
AI assistant like Google's Med Palm is designed to enhance work efficiency, increase the precision and quality of medical diagnosis and treatment results, and automate specific care processes that usually consume a lot of a physician's time that could have been spent on patient care—it's not here to replace physicians...
Uhm, though, we don't know what these "super tech guys" may have up their sleeves...
I know you have heard of the latest BARD GUY in town—BARD—Google's version of ChatGPT.
If you haven't, allow me to tell you a little bit about BARD!
BARD is Google's version of the famous CHATGPT (we all are literally in the middle of a big fight).
It's a new Large Language Model that supports more than 100 languages (this means BARD could likely know how to speak your local language).
BARD isn't just another chatbot. It's a super-intelligent AI that interacts naturally, like a human being. You can ask it any question, and it'll reply as if it's your buddy (but be careful, don't trust AI).
Google says BARD is still an experiment! Interesting.
Ok, that's all; if you want to know more about BARD, I found this interesting article that will answer your basic questions.
The possibilities of Google's Med Palm 2 are enormous and unimaginable. Google’s Med Palm2 is like BARD, more like BARD for healthcare.
"Med-PaLM harnesses the power of Google's large language models, which we have aligned to the medical domain with a set of carefully-curated medical expert demonstrations. Our first version of Med-PaLM, preprinted in late 2022, was the first AI system to surpass the pass mark on US Medical License Exam (USMLE) style questions. Med-PaLM also generates accurate, helpful long-form answers to consumer health questions, as judged by panels of physicians and users." - Google.
The next example we will be looking at is IBM's Watson.
"Watson's ingestion of more than 600,000 pieces of medical evidence, more than two million pages from medical journals and the further ability to search through up to 1.5 million patient records for further information gives it a breadth of knowledge no human doctor can match." Ian Steadman, WIRED.
AI algorithm, like IBM's Watson, is already diagnosing breast cancers accurately.
It's unbelievable but true. And making clinical/medical diagnoses is one of the core responsibilities of a physician.
What makes it possible for AI to do this?
Simple.
Making a medical diagnosis is majorly about highly structured DATA.
And no one can beat AI in the data game—no human from this side of the universe.
Google's Med Palm 2 and IBM's Watson are just a few examples of how AI aggressively disrupts medical practice and makes many of us ask questions.
In reality, physicians will never be able to keep up with the large volumes of medical research and data churned out every week.
It will take at least 160 hours a week for a physician to read all the new stuff published in their medical domains, not to talk about understanding them, picking out relevant information and applying them.
It doesn't take minutes for algorithms like IBM Watson to absorb data that big, understand it and apply it practically, and this ability should, in theory, fix a flaw in our current healthcare model.
Experts posit that in the future, AI algorithms like IBM's Watson will be made available in the cloud for hospitals and individual doctors to access; it'll, in turn, save cost and bring the expertise of doctors all over the globe to those who may not be able to easily (quickly) and directly afford it.
What even makes it more interesting is that algorithms like IBM's Watson are designed to evolve with guidelines, policies and medical best practices, so one won't be worried about it giving outdated medical advice or info.
But, sincerely, it's all still in the experiment. Though it doesn't mean it won't become a reality someday.
There are other beautiful examples I can show you of how AI is gradually trying to replace or displace some physicians—those who refuse to evolve with the times.
What are the implications for healthcare?
Google's Med Palm 2 has 540 billion parameters (that's a whole lot), and it draws knowledge (was trained on) thousands of scientific papers and websites; it can reason logically and perform complex mathematical problems, the same thing with IBM's Watson.
And it can easily describe an X-ray or mammogram or write a report; all you need to do is know how to command it.
I guess more doctors and nurses need to start learning how to write prompts.
Doctors and nurses (and healthcare professionals) of the future will be required to learn additional skills, like how to interact with artificial intelligence because healthcare AI will definitely become part of clinical practice in the future of health. You can’t stop it.
Only Targetted At Doctors?
Most of the AI in healthcare solutions may seem to be targeted at physicians, fortunately. Or unfortunately?
Only very few are targeted at nurses.
When we hear of a new cutting-edge large language model in healthcare AI, it's either it's about helping physicians make more accurate diagnoses or helping them document better.
Why is it so?
Well, like I have always said (and written), AI will radically disrupt the medical profession, and before it can infiltrate the nursing profession, it should have caused a lot of significant changes in the medical field.
The nursing field is a lot different from the medical field, they may have a lot in common, but there's still a lot of difference, especially in their approach to patient care and how they interact with patients.
And nursing and medicine meet at one common juncture: the patient.
While physicians tend to communicate more with the patient through written medical notes, medical plans, diagnoses and appointments, and their face-to-face interactions with the patient are limited, brief and short, whereas the nurse, on the other hand, interacts directly with the patient; there's no barrier between them and the patient or any limit to how long they can spend with the patient.
This attribute makes the physician the primary target of AI, and the nurse is mostly free from AI encroaching too deeply into their space.
However, this does not mean that there are no ways AI can disrupt nursing practice; it can; there are ideas out there, but it will have a hard time replacing many of the nurse's core responsibilities compared to the physician.
Nurses also document and make clinical nursing notes.
The difference between the nurse's and the physician's clinical notes is that while the physician's notes are always almost brief and straight to the point, the nurse's note is more detailed and captured in real time.
For the nurses, it must be an ongoing documentation of how the patient responds to a particular medication or treatment pathway, how they feel, their response, and their continuous, real-time physical assessment—it's very detailed.
Before any AI can do that, it must always be at the bedside, watching the patient, and it must know how to interact with the patient. It's not about the CHATGPT type of interaction; we are talking about touch, smiles, and a human presence.
And you know what? We are still far from having that kind of advanced technology in our hospitals.
The physician's duty is not restricted to documenting, writing clinical notes, treatment plans and communicating.
What about their core clinical duties, like physical examination, more invasive procedures, and surgical interventions?
AI hasn't become so advanced to displace core clinical professionals completely.
So, we won't see robots intubating patients or inserting central lines yet in the ICUs in the next maybe 20 to 30 years.
But who knows what it will be like in 50 or more years, considering the lightning speed in AI research and development in healthcare (and generally)?
Maybe?
Talking About "Core Clinical Skills"
Advanced robotic systems such as the DaVinci Robotic-assisted surgical system can enhance complex surgical procedures, with the surgeon operating the module using a console, similar to playing games.
According to the system designers, the DaVinci system is inspired by the human hand.
The designers want to improve the surgeon's ability in surgery.
There are manoeuvres surgeons can't do with their fingers during surgery; it's just outrightly impossible. There are cavities in the human body, and enclosed spaces and angles the surgeon's hand or even tools can't reach.
The DaVinci robotic system makes it possible.
It's fascinating to imagine what future advancements this technology will bring.
Medtech behemoths are already investing billions of dollars in building autonomous robotic systems that can handle surgeries without the surgeon in the operating room.
I know it sounds like sci-fiction to you.
But it's true.
Medtech behemoths are pumping billions of dollars into creating robotic surgeons that can operate without the surgeon being in the room.
That's some advanced [and expensive] science there.
Though this kind of technology may not even be ready in the next 30 or more years, and before it ever comes into existence, physicians of that era must have adjusted to the reality of the time.
Well, if these guys can design robotic systems this advanced, what stops them from designing robots that can intubate or insert central lines in the ICU, theatre, or ER?
And if we begin to have robots that can write for doctors, communicate for them, and do most of their bedside procedures, like inserting central lines or intubating, one begins to ask what our doctors will be doing—in the future.
Nursing—Still Far Away From AI Colonisation
There are certain sacred aspects of our human lives that we shouldn't allow AI to overdilute.
I am a staunch advocate for the adoption of advanced healthcare technologies.
I write about their adoption, and I am building a startup that exposes healthcare professionals to digital health technologies.
Nevertheless, I know that it's common sense for us to strive to preserve our humanity as a race.
A time will come when patients might not even see a physician when they come to the hospital.
The only time they might see one is maybe when they go in for surgery (that's if advanced robotic surgical systems won't have taken over our operating theatres) or when the physician just shows up to introduce themself to the patient, and that is if it's necessary.
It's super easy for AI to replace the pharmacist dispensing medications to patients. All they need is a prescription, and intelligent robotic systems will prepare the medications and hand it over to the patient.
What about the nurses at the bedside?
If AI eventually takes over all other departments in the hospital, what about the bedside, where there needs to be 100% undiluted human interaction?
It'll eventually happen.
I have read about robotic nurses, but they aren't really doing the duties of nurses. A nurse's responsibility is more than what a robot or AI can do.
And some studies have shown that AI can be more emotional than humans.
Hold on a second. Where does emotion come from? From a bunch of "0's and 1"?
No—emotions come from the soul, and AI can never have one unless we get to the level where we can code souls into AI algorithms.
The future of nursing practice may be secured in its unique nature—the embodiment of caring, affection, emotional intelligence and pure, undiluted human interaction.
There's no doubt that AI will help nurses in the care of patients; it can make monitoring of patients more efficient, making it faster for nurses to detect when a patient is deteriorating.
It will also reduce nurses' workload and give them enough time to interact with patients; nonetheless, nursing is one of those delicate areas in healthcare AI will never be able to seize control completely. Why, because nursing is more about emotional and human skills than surgical or any other clinical skills.
And Africa?
For us in Africa, it may still take another 20 or more years before we ever see a DaVinci robotic-surgical system in any of our hospitals.
But you never can tell.
We are in the age of data; we shouldn't compare the rate of development with what we saw in the analogue era.
Development in Africa in this age might be faster compared to other periods.
We already see some amazing innovations in the field of telehealth (though nothing compared to what's happening in developed countries), and what makes it interesting is that Africa is digitally connected to the world, and AI is practically new to everybody; the only hindrances we have here as a continent are the constant and ever-present hurdles of bad governments, corruption, poverty, lacking infrastructure and the likes.
Looking beyond these, Africa has the potential to stun the world in the dynamic field of AI & Healthcare.
AI Is Not A Substitute
AI may infiltrate the medical field and even threaten to seize some of the roles of physicians.
However, it can never replace them.
This article is not trying to downplay the important and irreplaceable role of the physician; it's instead attempting to make us understand (and appreciate) how advanced artificial intelligence is, its potential and how healthcare professionals need to start to evolve and adjust.
It doesn't matter how advanced technology gets; it will still need the emotional and ethical input of humanity.
Artificial Intelligence is only complete with the inclusion of human intelligence.
Take out human intelligence from the whole AI equation, and you've got a disaster.