As AI nurses reshape hospital care, human nurses are pushing back
apnews.com
The next time you get a call about an upcoming medical appointment you may not be talking to a human.

The next time you’re due for a medical exam you may get a call from someone like Ana: a friendly voice that can help you prepare for your appointment and answer any pressing questions you might have.

With her calm, warm demeanor, Ana has been trained to put patients at ease — like many nurses across the U.S. But unlike them, she is also available to chat 24-7, in multiple languages, from Hindi to Haitian Creole.

That’s because Ana isn’t human, but an artificial intelligence program created by Hippocratic AI, one of a number of new companies offering ways to automate time-consuming tasks usually performed by nurses and medical assistants.

It’s the most visible sign of AI’s inroads into health care, where hundreds of hospitals are using increasingly sophisticated computer programs to monitor patients’ vital signs, flag emergency situations and trigger step-by-step action plans for care — jobs that were all previously handled by nurses and other health professionals.

  • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
    15·
    12 hours ago

    The description sounds more like an AI receptionist than an AI nurse. It would be helpful if patients could ask follow-up questions to the automated phone call before an appointment. Some clinics don’t have the manpower for that, and especially not in all the languages that the local population might speak.

    I’d be interested in seeing how good the model actually is, and how it determines when to pass it along to a human

    The concern is with making sure the AI model is only used where it makes sense. Those who are looking to cut costs will try and use it everywhere, and that needs to be kept in check