The employees most likely to be replaced by medical robots might not be the ones you'd expect, according to a Slate report.
Those most likely to be targeted are specialists — the most highly trained and paid people in medicine. Like specialists, robots excel at doing one thing repeatedly and can do so at a near-perfect rate. For instance, physicians working without a Pap-screening computer detected 79.2 percent of abnormal Pap slides. When working with the computer, 85.8 percent of abnormal slides were identified.
So far, these screening machines have proven effective in detecting abnormalities on images of the colon, chest and coronary arteries. Machines to analyze breast and prostate biopsies are not far off. Robotic surgeries are also on the rise. While many of these computer-aided diagnostic technologies are still in the concept stage, they have economic implications for physicians.
Along with their accuracy, the time-effectiveness of robots translates to value. Working manually, a cytotechnologist can analyze about 80-90 Pap slides a day, and regulations set the maximum at 100 per day. Using the Pap-screening computer, a human examiner can go through 170 slides per day.
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Those most likely to be targeted are specialists — the most highly trained and paid people in medicine. Like specialists, robots excel at doing one thing repeatedly and can do so at a near-perfect rate. For instance, physicians working without a Pap-screening computer detected 79.2 percent of abnormal Pap slides. When working with the computer, 85.8 percent of abnormal slides were identified.
So far, these screening machines have proven effective in detecting abnormalities on images of the colon, chest and coronary arteries. Machines to analyze breast and prostate biopsies are not far off. Robotic surgeries are also on the rise. While many of these computer-aided diagnostic technologies are still in the concept stage, they have economic implications for physicians.
Along with their accuracy, the time-effectiveness of robots translates to value. Working manually, a cytotechnologist can analyze about 80-90 Pap slides a day, and regulations set the maximum at 100 per day. Using the Pap-screening computer, a human examiner can go through 170 slides per day.
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