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Why did no one ever think about automating most of the diagnosis in healthcare, instead of being dependant on a doctor? (piefed.world)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by beep@piefed.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/questions/p/1480838/why-did-no-one-ever-think-about-automating-diagnosis-in-healthcare-instead-of-being-depe

In a lot of health problems, the first steps involve listing symptoms and matching it as needed with blood tests, x-ray and other tests to finally lead to diagnosis and treatment. most if not all of the process could be automated to save time and get the best treatment.

To be clear: The automation I am talking about could be just an online symptoms form that give you the tests you need to have before deciding what to do.

In practice: This could be for example a person suffering from low vitamin D levels. Instead of visiting a doctor to order a blood test and then return to the doctor to prescribe him vitamin D, all that could be:

Filling online symptoms form(with pre-written symptoms database to select from) ➩ visiting any blood tests lab ➩ getting a vitamin D prescription.

Why didn't any hospital or healthcare facility apply this?

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[-] JayleneSlide@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

The idea of using computers to aid in medical diagnosis is older than you are, probably older than you and me put together. The field is called Medical Decision Support (MDS). The Department of Defense invested heavily in MDS, and last I knew, MDS was a key component in Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application.

Medical knowledge is collated by accomplished medical specialists, often surgeons and/or professors. The knowledge is weighted and encoded into modules using a specialized computer language. An engine runs a given module based on initial questions, then drops or engages modules based on how the questions/answers progress. Various tests are performed along the way, e.g. Bakody Sign for a cervical radiculopathy. At the end, the software spits out something like:

5/5 indications for C4/C5 nerve impingement
1/8 indications for COPD
8/10 indications for douchebaggery
suggest the [X, Y, Z] for further testing

The same company (PKC) that first developed MDS was founded by the guy who also developed the Problem-Oriented Medical Record, an early form of EMR and an efficient means to quantify medical diagnoses. I worked for him at PKC and wrote the IIS version of the engine. You can see a deeply neutered version of the software at Sharecare (I think they now call it AskMD).

this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2026

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