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Dick Massimilian's avatar

Ultimately, competence wins. The problem for the folks who use shortcuts is, they know they used them. Sooner or later (admittedly sometime much later) when called upon to deliver in real time, with no opportunity to use a crutch, those people falter. God help the patient whose doctor cheated his or her way through medical school.

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KLS's avatar

Exactly. Depending on the diminished quality of the medical community is a bit terrifying. A lawyer friend has been to the hospital twice from a cancer drug that his doc neglected to mention had a 8-13% side effect of a liver reaction which he got. Doctors donтАЩt want to discuss care. They just want to dictate it.

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Lynne Morris's avatar

Medical doctors are not trained in pharmacology. That is why that legion of pharmacology sales people is so successful. If you routinely take meds you need a good relationship with an independent (not big box store or chain) pharmacist.

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Brian's avatar

ThatтАЩs good information

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Mark Miles's avatar

I got into medical school in the 70тАЩs simply because I was good at standardized tests. Which is just a proxy for being able to memorize things. So I graduated with a good fund of knowledge. If people can now cheat their way through medical school by accessing that fund of knowledge on external apps, they will be able to use those same (constantly improving) apps to practice medicine, maybe more effectively than in pre-AI times. Weird times weтАЩre living through.

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KNP's avatar

But the problem remains - what question to ask the AI or Google?

You still have to take a good history and do an examination - before you can order any tests.

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Mark Miles's avatar

Yeah, I was sort of kidding. Especially, there are times when the physical exam is crucial. I did urgent care for a few years; treating URIтАЩs all day. But occasionally seeing really subtle, undiagnosed problems--- pronator drift in undiagnosed brain tumor, early epiglottitis in a 4 yo with just a sore throat--- I could go on. It will be interesting how much AI changes non-surgical medical practice.

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Brian's avatar

A lot of damage can be done before "ultimately" happens. Competence, or the best person for the job used to be the overall goal. Now it's all about checking the right blocks. Does the person have a degree from a highly ranked university, is their GPA above x, does the person have the correct racial background, preferred gender identity, have they completed community service supporting certain green initiatives, having certain disabilities can help. Then once the person is in the job and their lack of competence is displayed it can be very difficult to remove them, especially if the can play a discrimination card for defense.

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KNP's avatar

Nailed it. Especially the last sentence.

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TxFrog's avatar

If you own a local store and you're hiring someone to stock your shelves or run your cash register, you care about that person's competence. But if you work HR in a huge corporation and you are hiring thousands of people you will never meet, why would you care if they are competent? You are making headaches for supervisors throughout the organization, but you never even know it. If your hires are "politically correct" you get lots of praise and awards, even if the business suffers.

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Brian's avatar

So true. Even more so when they really need many workers. I saw that in the military. They lowered the passing score for the Army Physical Fitness Test to get people through basic training. So kids were passing basic training doing x number of push ups or sit ups one day. Then just a few days later the same person goes to their unit and does the same number of push ups and sit ups, but fails the same test. Now that kid is a burden on the unit and they both have to waste time and effort getting the kid in shape instead of focusing on making the kid proficient in his new job. Sometimes the person never gets in shape enough to pass, then effort is made to remove him from the military.

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Jeff Cunningham's avatar

Or the union card.

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Dave's avatar

Medical School students don't need to cheat. Instead Medical Schools are eliminating their 1st year test because too many were failing it.

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Nancy M's avatar

I hope тАЬcompetence winsтАЭ, but as I listen and watch many of our political players, progressive тАЬwokiesтАЭ and right-wing nuts, IтАЩm thinking competence is in short supply already.

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Cal's avatar

I was thinking the same thing. The much more horrifying phenomenon is when incompetence starts to be protected or excused because of political affiliation or social credit.

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NordicDawg's avatar

ItтАЩs no longer a case of when. ItтАЩs already at the highest levels of government.

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NCMaureen's avatar

Yes, I have a family member who worked for a company that hired a person who checked the requisite boxes, except for competency. My family member ended up having to cover for her. I bet this is happening a lot.

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