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Comment by HelloMcFly | Hacker News Reader

As my wife says: "Until it's as easy to sue AI as it is doctors, we probably won't see AI replacing doctors."

May be in the West. However more practical countries like China with a huge population and clear incentive to provide healthcare to a large population at reduced cost will have incentives to balance accuracy and usefulness in a better way.

My personal opinion is that a lot of Medical professionals are simply gatekeeping at this point of time and using legal definitions to keep changing goalposts.

However this is a theme that will keep on repeating in all domains and I do feel that gradual change is better than sudden, disruptive change.

AI in healthcare is going to add so many layers of indirection for malpractice lawsuits. You'll spend years and lots of $$$ trying to figure out who the defendant would ultimately be, only for it to end up being a LLC that unfortunately just filed for bankruptcy.

The worry isn't that you'll find an AI sitting on the chair that a radiologist used to sit. It's that the entire field of radiology gets reduced down to a button click on a software.

The other doctors will still be there for you to sue.

What if ppl just bought the equipment and did the scans at home?

Have you priced out a CT scanner and MRI?

Will you be able to source a radioactive source for your x-rays?

Fair. But what if ppl instead got scans in "radiology shops" without waiting for a specialist? Specialists are expensive.

Isn't that 90% of going to get scan is right now? You'll still need the "shop" to provide the equipment and the tech with the training to know what/where to scan, but you might get the results a bit faster? Are the radiologists the chokepoint now, or is it the techs?

That's the way it already works in many cases, just like with outpatient surgery clinics and other outpatient specialist practices. There is a critical difference, though, because radiology also has sub-specialities and someone focused on orthopedics probably isn't the one you'd want reading your cardiology images, nor would you want your ophthalmologic radiologist trying to diagnose a brain CT.

The X-Ray source is the X-ray machine. You may be referring to nuclear medicine which injects radioactive stuff, or radiation therapy.

DIY radiation therapy would be a whole new level.

> The X-Ray source is the X-ray machine.

Healthcare-grade x-ray tubes to put in your (expensive) x-ray machine are not something you easily can obtain without a license.

Here in New Zealand you get a licence after purchasing the equipment, and require the machine spec, date of manufacture and serial number to get the licence.

It does require a radiologist name on the paperwork as they are the one with the radiation licence. However it is possible to get one if not a radiologist (dentists do, and radiographers have).

Being licensed to use the equipment is the hard bit, as insurance companies require accreditation which is hard to get.

So the question is, “what if people bought an x-ray machine (affordably available on Amazon)and started using it without training on radiological safety”?

I assume followed shortly by "what is this weird red splotch on my skin?"

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