Doctors debate whether artificial intelligence ultimately will replace them in medical jobs

Hungary has become a major testing ground for A.I. software to detect cancer that doctors miss.

That observation comes in a story by Adam Satariano and Cade Metz in The New York Times earlier this week — an article that also contends that docs are already debating "whether the technology will replace them in medical jobs."

The piece contends that "so far, the technology is showing an impressive ability to spot cancer at least as well as human radiologists."

Dr. Laslo Tabar

According to the Satarano-Metz piece, "ultimately, A.I. could be lifesaving, said Dr. Laslo Tabar, a leading mammography educator in Europe who said he was won over by the technology after reviewing its performance in breast cancer screening from several vendors." 

Tabar was quoted as saying, "I'm dreaming about the day when women are going to a breast cancer center and hey are asking, 'Do you have A.I. or not?"

In 2016, the article continues, "Geoff Hinton, one of the world's leading A.I. researchers, argued that the technology would eclipse the skills of a radiologist within five years."

The Times story also quotes Peter Kecskemethy, a computer scientist who co-founded Kheiron Medical Technologies, a software company in London that develops A.I. tools to assist radiologists detect early signs of cancer, to the effect that Kheiron's software "cut down on radiologists' workloads by at least 30 percent because it reduced the number of X-rays they needed to read."

Tabar, according to the article, says that he "was shockingly surprised at how good [the software] was."

Information on other innovations in medicine can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.