Empathy cannot be replaced by AI yet!

Since the beginning of recorded medical history, physicians have been reluctant to embrace new ideas, technologies, and approaches to managing medical conditions. We have been creatures of our comfort zones. Even if the array of technologies offered brilliant solutions, it would be difficult for them to mimic empathy. At the core of compassion lies the process of building trust: listening to the patient, paying attention to their needs, expressing a sense of understanding, and responding in a manner that the patient knows they have been understood.

Robots mimicking empathy

At present, patients don't trust a robot or an intelligent algorithm with life-altering advice; maybe not even with a decision to take a painkiller. We don't trust machines/robots in tasks, even when they are better than humans, such as taking blood samples. Robots have demonstrated the ability to draw blood with high accuracy, potentially surpassing human professionals in some instances and streamlining the blood-drawing process.

We need doctors to hold patients' hands while explaining a life-changing diagnosis, guide them through therapy, and provide overall support. Currently, an algorithm cannot replace that.

Artificial intelligence-based solutions are improving healthcare. We saw this coming over the past years, as easy-to-use programs such as ChatGPT have arrived and gained broader acceptance in the medical community. That initial wave of enthusiasm grew into a tsunami. Would this mean that medical professionals are no longer needed? Of course not.

The medical community should not be swayed by fear-mongering surrounding AI. Despite the wide-scale automation and digitalization, humans will always be needed for specific tasks. Studies suggest that the use of robots and AI could lead to expanded employment opportunities and increased wages for healthcare workers. However, there is a growing concern about the impact of technology, from artificial intelligence potentially replacing doctors in various specialties and robots surpassing surgeons' skills, to taking jobs in the pharmaceutical industry.

According to a quote that has now become a classic, "AI will be bigger than all other tech revolutions, and robots are likely to replace 50 percent of all jobs in the next decade," venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee told CNBC in 2017. Although we still have five years until the predicted decade, it is unlikely that a change of such magnitude will occur within this timeframe.

Silicon Valley investor Vinod Khosla said that "machines will substitute 80 percent of doctors in the future in a healthcare scene driven by entrepreneurs, not medical professionals." Prof Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of neural networks, said, "It's quite obvious that we should stop training radiologists" as image perception algorithms will soon be better than humans.

Artificial intelligence-based solutions may eliminate the need for human labor. They will replace human resources in medical jobs that people dislike, such as mundane administrative tasks or medical coding, and disinfecting hospital spaces. Offering telehealth solutions and intelligent algorithms also supplements professionals' functions, such as diagnostics, image analysis, decision support, hospital resource optimization, clinical workflow optimization, forecasting, drug discovery, and making precision medicine available to most patients.

Healthcare will likely require human involvement in the future.

AI will be embraced in most healthcare environments in 10-15 years. We already see good examples, such as the sepsis prediction algorithm that has cut sepsis mortality rates by nearly 30%, skin cancer detection with near-perfect accuracy, or wearables using an algorithm that predicts atrial fibrillation 30 minutes before onset, allowing for preemptive intervention.

AI will transform what it means to be a doctor; some tasks may disappear, while others will be added to the work routine. However, there will never be a situation where automation, whether in the form of a robot or an algorithm, will replace a doctor.

Five reasons that AI will not replace physicians

1. Empathy cannot be duplicated with an algorithm

Even if the array of technologies offered brilliant solutions, it would be difficult for them to mimic empathy. The core of compassion involves building trust: listening to the other person, paying attention to their needs, expressing a sense of understanding, and responding in a manner that lets the other person know they are understood.

At present, most patients would not trust a robot or an intelligent algorithm with a life-altering decision—maybe not even with a decision to take a painkiller or not. We don't trust machines, even in tasks where they have performed better than humans—such as taking blood samples. We need doctors to hold patients' hands while explaining a life-changing diagnosis, guide them through therapy, and provide overall support. An algorithm at this time cannot replace that.

2. Physicians use a non-linear working method to reach a diagnosis and treatment

Setting up a diagnosis and treating a patient are not linear processes. It requires creativity and problem-solving skills that algorithms and robots cannot replicate.

Patients and their lifestyles vary to the degree that people differ. Diseases may share similar features, but no case is identical; everyone requires the attention of human physicians. Until the emergence of complex, digital solutions, doctors will need to interpret the data from simple medical devices and translate that information into medical decisions.

3. Complex digital technologies require competent professionals

Sophisticated digital health solutions will require medical expertise, whether it involves robotics or AI. The human brain is so complex that it can store a vast amount of knowledge and data, making it probably not worth developing an AI to take over this job, as it does it so well. We should consider surrendering those data-based tasks and leaving the complex analysis/decision-making to the physician.

4. There will always be tasks that algorithms/robots can never complete

Physicians, nurses, and other medical staff members have many cumbersome, monotonous, and repetitive tasks to complete daily. A study indicates that the average doctor in the United States spends 8.7 hours per week on administrative tasks. The two most common time usurpers are completing medical records and obtaining time-consuming, uncompensated prior authorization for permissions to prescribe medications or request permission for lab tests or imaging studies.

Psychiatrists spend the highest proportion of their working hours on paperwork (20.3%), followed by internists (17.3%) and family/general practitioners (17.3%). These types of tasks and procedures can now be automated using AI.

However, there are responsibilities and duties that technologies cannot perform. While AI can sift through millions of pages of documents in seconds, it will never be able to perform the Heimlich maneuver, circumcise a patient, or counsel a dying patient. There will always be tasks where humans are faster, more reliable, cheaper, and more empathetic than technology.

5. It is not tech vs human

It has never been a case of technology versus humans, as technological innovations always serve the purpose of helping patients. Collaboration between humans and technology is the ultimate response.

A study that identifies metastatic breast cancer through deep learning demonstrates the superiority of AI over human analysis. When the deep learning system's predictions were combined with the human pathologist's diagnoses, the image classification and tumor localization score increased significantly, and the human error rate decreased by 85%. The findings show that collaboration between artificial intelligence and humans is most effective.

A non-medical example is from the game of chess. Human chess players threw in the towel following Garry Kasparov's defeat against a supercomputer. However, the opposite effect has occurred. Today, over 600 million people engage in daily chess, and AI has become an indispensable tool for players, enthusiasts, and coaches.

AI has demonstrably enhanced chess by creating a more competitive, popular, and effective environment. AI has transformative potential in healthcare, where its adoption promises similar advancements.

Imagine what health care could be capable of if humans' creativity and problem-solving skills were combined with AI's infinite computing power and cognitive resources. Physicians must stop fearing AI and step up and embrace it.

Bottom line:

The human touch is an integral part of the practice of medicine. It is a fundamental part of the patient-doctor relationship, where patients feel they are cared for by a human being. Patients want to feel that there is someone who not only understands their problem and offers a solution but can also easily feel their pain, fear, and anxiety. The human touch and empathy significantly enhance the healing process. The key takeaway is that patients tend to feel better when they encounter an empathetic medical professional.