How AI Is Changing The Way Doctors Access Medical Knowledge
Forbes December 13, 2024
Imagine a 1950s doctor treating a patient with a perplexing constellation of symptoms.
He first turns to his pocket handbook, the Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics. Next, he consults Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, the lengthy reference text he keeps in his office. Still uncertain, he discusses the case with a colleague before searching for a relevant journal article in his hospital’s medical library.
Throughout the 20th century, doctors primarily searched for medical knowledge this way. However, as the decades passed, the volume of information exploded, computers digitized it, and the Internet connected the world. By the early 2000s, doctors pivoted to online information sources, first via desktop computers and later mobile devices.
Today, doctors like me have plenty of...