The AI will see you now

AI 可以給你看病了

　　Artificial intelligence is coming to medicine for good, ill or both

　　人工智能進(jìn)駐醫(yī)療一一也許好,也許壞,也許兼而有之

　　For all the technological wonders of modern medicine, from gene-editing to fetal surgery, health care—with its fax machines and clipboards—is often stubbornly antiquated. This outdated era is slowly drawing to a close as, belatedly, the industry catches up with the artificial-intelligence (ai) revolution. And none too soon, argues Eric Topol, a cardiologist and enthusiast for digital medicine.

　　盡管有從基因編輯到胎兒手術(shù)等各種現(xiàn)代醫(yī)學(xué)技術(shù)奇跡,但醫(yī)療行業(yè)往往又非常因循守舊它還在廣泛使用傳真機(jī)和夾紙記錄板。而今這個(gè)行業(yè)總算開始追趕人工智能(AI)革命的熱潮,一個(gè)落伍的時(shí)代正慢慢走向尾聲。心臟病學(xué)家、數(shù)字醫(yī)學(xué)信徒埃里克托普爾(Eric Topol)認(rèn)為這樣的變化早該發(fā)生了。

　　Dr Topol’s vision of medicine’s future is optimistic. He thinks ai will be particularly useful for repetitive, error-prone tasks, such as sifting images, scrutinising heart traces for abnormalities or transcribing doctors’ words into patient records. It will be able to harness masses of data to work out optimal treatments (for both conditions and individuals), and improve workflows in hospitals. In short, ai is set to save time, lives and money.

　　托普爾對(duì)醫(yī)學(xué)的未來持樂觀態(tài)度。他認(rèn)為A對(duì)于重復(fù)性的、易出錯(cuò)的任務(wù)尤其有用,例如篩選圖像、檢查心臟異常的跡象,或?qū)⑨t(yī)生的話轉(zhuǎn)錄成病歷。AI 將能夠利用大量數(shù)據(jù)來制定出治療某種疾病以及特定個(gè)體的最佳方案,并改善醫(yī)院的工作流程。簡(jiǎn)而言之，AI 有望節(jié)省時(shí)間、金錢,并挽救生命。

　　Much of this is hypothetical—but ai is already outperforming people in a variety of narrow jobs for which it has been trained. Eventually it may be able to diagnose and treat a wider range of diseases. Even then, Dr Topol thinks, humans would oversee the algorithms, rather than being replaced by them.

　　這其中有相當(dāng)一部分仍只是假設(shè)。但在經(jīng)過專門訓(xùn)練后,AI 在各種特定工作任務(wù)中的表現(xiàn)已經(jīng)超越人類。最終它也許將能夠診斷和治療更多類型的疾病。托普爾認(rèn)為,即便真的如此,人類仍監(jiān)督算法,而不是被A 取代。

　　The fear the author harbours is that ai will be used to deepen the assembly-line culture of modern medicine. If it confers a “gift of time” on doctors, he argues that this bonus should be used to prolong consultations, rather than simply speeding through them more efficiently.

　　作者心中的擔(dān)憂是,A 會(huì)被用于進(jìn)一步強(qiáng)化現(xiàn)代醫(yī)學(xué)的流水線文化。如果它能給醫(yī)生帶來“時(shí)間的饋贈(zèng)",他認(rèn)為應(yīng)將這個(gè)好處用于延長(zhǎng)問診時(shí)間,而不是簡(jiǎn)單地追求提高效率,快速完成診療。

　　That is a fine idea, but as health swallows an ever-bigger share of national wealth, greater efficiency is exactly what is needed, at least so far as governments and insurers are concerned. Otherwise, rich societies may fail to cope with the needs of ageing and growing populations. An extra five minutes spent chatting with a patient is costly as well as valuable. The ai revolution will also empower managerial bean-counters, who will increasingly be able to calibrate and appraise every aspect of treatment. The autonomy of the doctor will inevitably be undermined, especially, perhaps, in public-health systems which are duty-bound to trim inessential costs.

　　這是個(gè)不錯(cuò)的想法,但隨著醫(yī)療支出耗費(fèi)國(guó)家財(cái)富的比重越來越高,需要做到的正是提高效率,至少對(duì)政府和保險(xiǎn)公司而言是這樣。否則,富裕社會(huì)可能無法應(yīng)對(duì)老齡化和人口增長(zhǎng)帶來的醫(yī)療需求。和患者多談五分鐘很有價(jià)值,但成本也很高。AI 革命還將賦能財(cái)務(wù)管理人員,提高他對(duì)治療的方方面面做出調(diào)整和評(píng)估的能力。醫(yī)生的自主權(quán)將不可避免地被削弱,在有責(zé)任削減不必要成本的公共衛(wèi)生系統(tǒng)中也許尤其如此。

　　The Hippocratic Oath holds that there is an art to medicine as well as a science, and that “warmth, sympathy and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug”. That is not just a platitude: the patients of sympathetic physicians have been shown to fare better. As Dr Topol says, it is hard to imagine that a robot could really replace a human doctor. Yet as demand for health care outstrips the supply of human carers, the future may involve consultations on smartphones and measurements monitored by chatbots. The considerately warmed stethoscope, placed gently on a patient’s back, may become a relic of the past.

　　按希波克拉底誓言所說,醫(yī)學(xué)既是科學(xué)又是藝術(shù),“醫(yī)生給予病人的溫暖、同情和理解有時(shí)比外科醫(yī)生的手術(shù)刀和藥劑師的藥更重要”。這并不是陳詞濫調(diào)：研究顯示,醫(yī)生富有同情心,患者恢復(fù)得更好。正如托普爾所說,很難想象機(jī)器人真的可以取代人類醫(yī)生。然而，隨著對(duì)醫(yī)療的需求超過了人類醫(yī)療工作者的供給,未來人們可能需要通過智能手機(jī)問診,由聊天機(jī)器人來監(jiān)控測(cè)量結(jié)果。醫(yī)生體貼地將聽醫(yī)生體貼地將聽診器捂暖后再輕輕貼在病人背部的情形可能會(huì)成為歷史。

　　In the end technology may even be able to solve the empathy deficit. Japanese engineers are working on robots that simulate human presence, or sonzai-kan. A machine could never truly develop the shared humanity that helps patients heal. That doesn’t mean it cannot be faked.

　　未來,技術(shù)甚至可能會(huì)解決共情缺失的問題。 日本工程師正在研究模擬人性( sonal-kan) 的機(jī)器人。機(jī)器可能永遠(yuǎn)無法真正發(fā)展出人類共有的特性來幫助患者康復(fù),但這并不意昧著它們不能假裝有。

　　注：雙語(yǔ)全文源自EC0

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