@Chris-Johnston let me be the first to pass you a wand! ☺

@Robert-Wells

Just circling back & bringing this back up as I uncover more info.

Ontario had a famous privacy breach case - I found the response from the Office of Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario:
https://www.ipc.on.ca/en/decisions/informal-resolution-high-profile-breaches/hospital-privacy-breach-involving-ai-scribes-tool
OtterAI was involved.

It turns out OtterAI is a lot more autonomous than we original thought. It will automatically access personal email lists and autonomously send emails... even if you're not aware of it. BE AWARE when/if using it.

@Chris-Johnston I was there virtually and we both won prize for Whova participation.

@Alies-Maybee We need to talk.

@Jenna-Kedy-0

Did you know the mass producer of these toys is China?

The Chinese government created laws banning these toys to children 18 yrs and under.

@MichelleWithers

True.

Diagnostic AI will not fix the healthcare system. It is, after all, only a tool. A tool to assist clinicians get to an answer... quicker. This translates to less time the patient has to wait as a consequence of mis-diagnosis.

It will not solve long wait times. It will not solve clinician burnout (many are heading for the exits labelled "retirement"). However, if it a tool can alleviate some of a clinician's cognitive load, then I'm all for it. We - as patients / caregivers - have an active role in protecting out clinicians... else, we will lose them altogether.

I recently read an article arguing that Canada does not have a healthcare system. It has a jumbled mess of care delivery services; connected by Band-Aids... hmmm...

@Alies-Maybee
Thanks for sharing Alies - this really resonated on many levels. Bizarrely, I made a similar comparison to children working in mills in the Industrial Revolution on the forum just last week. It will be interesting to see the course she’s developing.

@Jenna-Kedy-0 It makes me happy when there's pushback from local communities about having data centers built in their respective areas, and they manage to not have them built at all!

Data centers being built in areas that are experiencing drought just doesn't feel ethical or even right to me, and then all the problems with using a lot of water, the effects on the environment, effects on humans, and wildlife.

"BUT JOBS!" They only really hire very few people to work in these data centers, and they're only there to troubleshoot problems. Most of daily admin things can be done remotely or are automated already.

@Kim-Locke

Very true - what still amazes me is that they've managed to infiltrate the very conservative infrastructure of medicine so rapidly.

We're well acquainted with how reluctant the medical profession are (both individually and as a body) to move forward in any respect. Faxes are one example, the delay of 10-15 years to get research evidence into practice is another.

Yet, entire health systems are jumping on board AI technologies that are neither mature nor sufficiently tested at scale. In just a handful of years, AI projects are consuming large chunks of healthcare budgets despite the alarming lack of regulation or evidence to support efficacy or safety. While other services are squeezed, reduced or defunded, with little or no public awareness or discussion. It's an incredible and concerning feat of manipulation.

@Kim-Locke

Yeah... this is in the U.S. Not sure what their privacy & consent practices are. But - something to watch out for if it comes up here.

@Debra-Turnbull
Mayo Clinic and Ambient Listening

I found this easier to read article. This appears to be gaining traction in the media.

The Mayo Clinic is a well respected American research hospital. There are still problems with patient consent.

@Chris-Johnston
Okay, the mechanism you're describing is a little disturbing.

There is already a parallel system in play in radiology (I believe). The detection skills of the radiologists showed significant deterioration over time - so much so that one of their oversight bodies made a recommendation to turn OFF the AI system for some length of time; in order to force the radiologist to use their brain.

Skills deterioration has been observed and measured. The term used to refer to this deterioration is now called "de-skilling".
(Now, if I can only remember where the heck I read that...)

@Debra-Turnbull I think this should raise a red flag for PAN, in general, in terms of privacy and consent of patient identity. There's a lot of red flags with AI, but this one is pretty big.