What’s up Doc? How a robot could save your life.
Soon this question will be addressed to Watson, not the Doctor.
About five years ago I spoke to a futurist who told me how some knowledge based jobs will be taken over by computers to enable a higher quality, more consistent service than us lowly humans can provide. A couple of weeks ago I saw how this is starting to become a reality.
The IBM product Watson is an incredible piece of software that is literally transforming people’s lives. Watson can provide a medical diagnosis rate far superior to any doctor. Your typical GP has a first time diagnosis accuracy rate of around 50%, while Watson consistently scores around 90%! How is this possible? How can several years of medical training plus ongoing learning not keep up with a basic computer?
Data is the key, there is now so much information being produced in the field of medicine that it would take your average GP over 300 hours per week just to keep up with it all! Of course the computer can upload this information in seconds, and continue to do so week after week without forgetting anything.
In addition to this Watson is impartial. We as humans are amazing creatures but we remain shaped by our experiences and unconscious bias. A medial professional who may have seen a certain set of symptoms previously in a patient may be tempted to give the same diagnosis even if subtle differences mean that there is a different cause.
So if you enter a hospital or other medical practice in a few years time be pleased if you or your loved ones are diagnosed by a machine – it could literally be a lifesaver. But don’t worry; the roles that require genuine passion, care and empathy such as nurses will not be able to be replaced by robots and technology.
The application of ‘Watson’ style technology has scope beyond the medical profession; take a moment to think about your organization and how this technology could apply to you. For example your engineering crews could use this technology to speed up fault-finding, your legal team can assess vast volumes of case law in mere moments – the productivity enhancement opportunity could be enormous.
Take a moment to imagine the future of work for us all.
About Pauline Tarrant:
Pauline has a passion for people performance and spent her entire working life helping organisations, teams and individuals perform at their best. Her expertise in the HR technology space enables Pauline Tarrant Consulting to operate as a trusted partner to the HR team to explore how to get the best from existing technology and explore new solutions that offer best-fit improvements to their business.
