Comment: Doctors still have a future in screening cancer despite rise in Artificial Intelligence

Fletchers Solicitor’s Medical Negligence Solicitor, Kim Jackson believes specialist doctors still have an important role to play in diagnosing cancer.

Speaking in response to a new study that suggests artificial intelligence is better than doctors at diagnosing serious cancers, Kim is hopeful for a collaborative future in medical healthcare.

“AI is developing at a rapid rate and it is great to see technology is being adopted to help clinicians identify cancer, particularly lung cancer in this case.

“It’s promising that AI could boost cancer detection by 5% and reduce false positives by 11%.

“This should streamline the process of diagnosing cancer and treating the same in a timelier manner, whilst further reducing the stress that people have to go through during a time of uncertainty such as being faced with the possibility of cancer.”

The team of researchers from Google and Northwestern University, Illinois who developed the report are confident that their findings demonstrate artificial intelligence will outperform the effectiveness of humans in screening lung cancer.

In their report, the individuals involved in the process went on record to say ‘AI would have a “huge” role in the future of medicine’.

Kim concluded:

“I must however reserve judgement on how reliable AI will be on its’ own.

“It must not be forgotten that the human mind is an amazing thing, which I think should be used in conjunction with AI, so we can continue to find ways to improve medicine in the future.”