What I think is that there is still enough profit to be had in medical training and medical insurance and publications that we still have doctors.

Because really, if we're going to take a blood test or pictures and then diagnose based on a statistical norm, we don't need doctors. A decent camera-computer-software set up could do all of that, might want a nurse for the blood draw and some talk-through instruction. If that set-up isn't in place already it's merely for a lack of doing it; the tech exists.

At this point doctors have so little time with patients that a well thought out physical setup could probably garner exponentially more information in 5-10 minutes than a human could anyway.

I am one of those people who really believes that in any job, you train people well, you gear them to interest in their quality and their field which hopefully will lead to future self-edu, you make sure they have the resources they need and someone is available if they have an issue... and then you get the hell out of their way and let them do their job. And it's going to vary and it's going to be human-affected because they're a human. And that's a good thing.

Because if we aren't going to allow the 'human element' of doctors -- from decent exam time, to ability to do what they think is best or even 'work with' a patient to try different things -- then there is no point to humans. That element, that individual insight and intuition and flexibility, IS the human element that was worthwhile.

The other human elements are all lesser, not better, than technology can do -- detail of measure, speed of measure, etc. Those are the things that automation actually improves.

As long as doctors can be proxy priests and medical school and insurance and more can be insanely lucrative industries, we will probably still have doctors. But that isn't about the doctoring, it's just about the profit. To whatever degree we hogtie their 'human element' we render the need for them obsolete.

At this point going to the doctor is like 80 minutes of waiting followed by another 20 minutes of waiting in a room followed by a harried person who has 5-10 minutes as if your health is a sudden pop quiz and then they gotta move on. Given what's been said about the narrowing of doctor 'options' and human element, I think we could improve this system:

I go to the medical center where someone who can give instructions and if needed draw blood or whatever tells me to strip and walk into a room that takes a stupid number of camera / laser-light / blood measurements of everything imaginable. 5 minutes later I dress and enter another room where a ridiculously handsome guy (or gal) spends 5 minutes talking with me as if I am Truly Important To Them, wishes me well, and I go home feeling better about it all. The computer will follow up with a boilerplate report and assigned medications based on various readings. They will show up at a local outpatient counter, where I'll have to swipe my arm weekly anyway to make sure I'm taking all the drugs officially assigned me Or Else(tm).

No doctor needed.

If it sounds terrifyingly Orwellian, it is. But it's a logical extension of where we're going with it all.

PJ