AI software has the ability to consume and condense information from millions of pages of medical journals, offer treatment suggestions based on evidence in a medical chart, accelerate the development of precision medicine and potentially help discover new therapies and treatments for a handful of complex diseases. However, technologies that use AI software — despite their incredible capabilities — cannot fully replace humans. Deborah DiSanzo, general manager of IBM Watson Health, told Becker’s Hospital Review healthcare technology companies should aim to treat artificial intelligence entities as ‘augmented intelligence’ entities whose sole purpose it is to enhance the skills and talents medical professionals already possess.
“‘Augmented intelligence’ has the potential to help medical experts address the world’s most pressing health challenges. Though AI is commonly known as ‘artificial intelligence,’ at IBM we call it ‘augmented intelligence’ … [because] for most of our businesses and companies, it will not be man or machine — it will be a symbiotic relationship [between the two]. Our purpose is to augment and really be in service of what humans do, [not replace them].”
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