A week at the rural health clinic changed my mind about AI diagnostic tools

I used to think AI in medicine was a gimmick that would just cost jobs. But last month I spent a week volunteering at a small clinic in rural Mississippi where they have one doctor for 3 counties. A nurse showed me how they use a free AI tool to flag early signs of diabetic retinopathy in photos. It caught 12 cases in 5 days that would have been missed until patients went blind. Has anyone else seen how these tools actually help in places with no specialists?

2 comments

2 Comments

richard_dixon26d agoMost Upvoted

Wait, 12 cases in 5 days? That's insane. Those people would have just gone blind waiting for a specialist that never shows up. I've seen diabetic retinopathy how it destroys your vision basically eats the back of your eyes. Its crazy a simple photo and some AI can catch it before that happens. Rural healthcare is so broken its nice to see something actually working for a change.

kai_park26d ago

and its not just rural healthcare either. you see the same pattern everywhere these days - people waiting weeks for basic stuff that technology could handle in minutes. my aunt waited 4 months for a dermatologist to look at a mole, and there's literally an AI app now that does it better than half the GPs. the problem is the system is built for a world that doesn't exist anymore, where you had a specialist in every town and didn't need to drive 3 hours to see one. ai is basically filling the gaps that the system left behind, and honestly its about time something did.