From: deputydog23x@gmail.com   
      
   The human physician will soon become history. Here's why.    
      
   ROBERT KHOO, MD | PHYSICIAN | SEPTEMBER 22, 2015    
      
   In the age of spiritual machines Ray Kurzweil in 2001 predicted:    
      
   By 2020, a $1,000 computer will match processing speed of the human brain --   
   20 billion calculations per second.    
      
   By 2030, it will simulate the brain power of a small village about 1,000 human   
   minds.    
      
   By 2048, it will have the brain power of the entire population of the U.S.    
      
   I predict that within 20 to 30 years the computer will replace the venerable   
   physician. Computers can already be programmed to detect sarcasm and read   
   emotions. They can study your face and body language. Computerized   
   psychotherapists or cybertherapy is    
   soon to come. Programs can detect deviation from the standard pattern of human   
   physiology, thinking and behavior. We can already program standards of care   
   and integrate it into an electronic health record. The U.S. government program   
   of meaningful use is    
   forcing the adoption electronic health record use in 3 stages by 2017. As   
   always, encouragement is by reward initially, followed by penalty in the later   
   stages.    
      
      
   Now as you sit in a doctor's office, you are likely yourself talking to   
   yourself rather to your doctor who's not spending any face to face time with   
   you. He or she is likely staring at a computer screen and typing notes as you   
   speak. Because of physician    
   shortages or need to meet RVU targets (unit measure of patient care), your   
   doctor has 10 to 15 minutes to spend with you. During that time, your doctor   
   has to document all key elements of the visit and check off various measures   
   meaningful use but if you    
   are lucky, a minute will actually be spent on a limited physical exam.    
      
   Compare that with the experience you had when you were younger. Decades ago my   
   old family doctor sat in front of me, talked to me and talked with me. He   
   would jot a few notes on paper. I got an examination and a treatment plan. He   
   made me feel as if I    
   had spent a long time with him. I would call that "meaningful."    
      
   As the government, health insurers and hospitals demand greater efficiency,   
   more documentation and of course, error-free care, it is in their best   
   interest to replace us with machines. There will no longer be any medical   
   errors, malpractice will become    
   history, and your doctor won't be exhausted or troubled with anything so   
   trivial as feelings. Who needs that sort of interaction because you are only   
   here for a service. In the near future, we will be talking to a computer with   
   voice recognition. We won'   
   t miss the warmth of a patient-physician relationship since that will have   
   been bled from our experience and our memory. It would be like the depiction   
   in the movie, Elysium, when Matt Damon talks to a computer rather than a human   
   parole officer with    
   hilarious results.    
      
   The human physician will become history. Laying of the hands will be replaced   
   by computerized probing and touch sensitive feelers, not by doctors, but by   
   providers.    
      
   I can hardly wait.    
      
   Robert Khoo is a surgeon who blogs at Social Media and Surgery.    
      
   Image credit: Shutterstock.com    
      
          
   TAGGED AS: PRIMARY CARE    
      
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   http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2015/09/the-human-physician-will-soo   
   -become-history-heres-why.html   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)