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Artificial Intelligence in Medicine - Caveat Doctor!

Artificial intelligence (AI) has arrived and will permeate every aspect of our society.  It will touch all of us in our work, in the arts, in entertainment, in our government, and in our culture.  As with all technology, it will deliver us both blessings and curses.  We have been sharply warned of its potential destructive capability even by advocates of this technology.  Will governments, industry, and the public agree on proper guardrails and restraint or will the tiger simply be let out of the cage?  I worry that the strategy will be Ready! Fire! Aim! , instead of adopting thoughtful and prudent measures to keep us safe.  Indeed, I’ve offered some sober thoughts on this issue to my readers in a prior post . My medical journals are now riddled with studies on various medical uses of AI portending an unimaginable future in the medical profession. A few paragraphs further down in this post, I will ask my readers a philosophical question regarding AI and I invite a dialogue.   Until
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Do I Have a Rare Disease?

 There’s an adage known to every medical student, intern, resident, and practicing physician. When you hear hoofbeats behind you, don't expect to see a zebra. This quote has been paraphrased into several iterations, but the quote is credited to Dr. Thomas Woodward in 1940.   Dr. Woodward, a wise medical professor and Nobel Prize nominee, offered his advice to medical interns.   The aphorism has timeless value. The point is for physicians to exhaust common explanations when confronting medical clues before broadening the exercise to contemplate rare potential diagnoses.    It is more likely that hoofbeats are made by a common horse than a more exotic hoofed beast.   Get it? Let me offer a brilliant quote.   Common things occur commonly.   If a patient sees his physician to evaluate a fever, it’s unlikely that the doctor will entertain malaria as a diagnostic consideration, even though fever is a hallmark of malaria.   Seasoned clinicians will widen their diagnostic view when

Are Probiotics Safe and Effective?

Recently, I stated that probiotics are marketed and sold free from the strict scrutiny of Food and Drug Administration  (FDA) oversight that our prescription drugs routinely undergo.  And this is just how these companies want it.  Trust me, if probiotics had to endure the same vetting process that actual drugs go through, most of them would be snuffed out along the way. Here’s a simplified glimpse of how the system works. Yo ho, hey hey, keep away from the FDA! Many probiotics are classified by the FDA as dietary supplements, rather than drugs.   Indeed, it is this classification that allows the industry to thrive.   The FDA regulates supplements much more leniently than they do conventional prescription drugs that must endure years of intensive vetting and successive clinical trials.  The drug approval process is so rigorous that most drug candidates will not reach the finish line.  The FDA maintains high standards for safety and efficacy.  However, b ecause probiotics are not drugs

Should Insurance Companies Pay for Off-Label Drugs?

Usually, we doctors give you advice.   In this case, I’d like readers to offer an opinion on an issue that patients and I face regularly. First, let’s acknowledge the huge reservoir of frustration and anger directed against insurance companies concerning their coverage decisions.   I have willingly entered this arena to wage battles for patients.   Despite my vigorous prosecutions of these contests, the outcomes have been variable.   Indeed, these competitions are not for the causal physician participant.   The doctor must have the mettle, determination, skill and endurance of a Navy SEAL if there is to be any prospect of success. Some of my prior duels against Big Pharma and Big Insurance are chronicled in the Pharmaceutical Quality category on this blog.   Considering many insurance company coverage actions and decisions, it is understandable that patients do not believe that these companies prioritize the health of their members.   Although it is understandable to demonize t

How to Choose the Right Surgeon

Let me test my readers to gauge how skillful you have become in choosing wisely in the Byzantine medical universe.  You develop abdominal pain and, although you are not a trained medical professional, you fear that you have appendicitis.  There are two surgeons available and you want to engage in due diligence to ascertain which physician should be granted access to your abdomen.   A quick internet search uncovers the following data. Surgeon A:  Twenty patients had proven appendicitis.  This surgeon operated on all of the patients.  No case of appendicitis was missed.  Surgeon B: Twenty patients had proven appendicitis.  This surgeon chose to operate on 18 patients.  Two cases of appendicitis were missed.   Before reading on, think to yourself which surgeon would you choose? While this is not a trick question, I wonder how many readers were entrapped to select Surgeon A.  Who wouldn’t choose a surgeon with a 100% track record?  I wouldn’t.  I’d place my belly under the

Will Private Equity Buy Your Hospital?

Advertisers are masters at knowing how certain words and phrases will affect us.  Consider some of the seemingly innocent words and phrases below and how they have an emotional impact. IRS Big Tech Police officers Corporate profits Millennials Congress The Nursing Profession. Over time we have been conditioned to experience emotional responses to various phrases and labels.   For instance, there is nothing intrinsically evil in businesses earning money since this is an expected and desirable outcome.   Yet, ask us to react to the term corporate profits and I suspect that most of our reactions would trend negatively.   It’s unlikely that a political candidate would proclaim in an ad or a speech that he or she wants to be a Champion of Corporate Profits! Private Equity certainly merits inclusion in the above list.   Most folks have an unfavorable opinion of PE even if they don’t fully understand this business model.   And some of the actions committed by PE justify sus

When Should Your Doctor Refer for a Second Opinion?

As a gastroenterologist (GI), I am regarded by primary care physicians and other medical professional as having special expertise in digestive diseases.  Indeed, I have highly specialized training in digestive maladies and function.  I regard myself as a GI generalist, that is a practitioner who treats the full array of digestive conditions.  Over the past decades, I have treated patients with diseases of the small and large bowel, stomach, and esophagus issues and pancreatic liver and gallbladder disorders.  And I have had a full endoscopy practice – the tools of the GI trade.  One of the appeals of being a GI Gen is that I see a wide and diverse span of medical conditions.  In a single week, I may address heartburn and ulcers. Crohn’s disease, hepatitis, bowel changes, internal bleeding, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, and hemorrhoids.  I enjoy the variety.   GI Generalists Cover a Lot of Ground! During most of my career, I seldom referred patients to other gastroenterologists