Tag: HealthcareInnovation

Business

AI Doctors: The Future of Primary Care or a Leap Too Far?

An image of a telehealth consultation on a computer screen, showing a doctor in a virtual meeting with a patient. The doctor, dressed in a white coat, appears professional and engaged, while the patient’s face is visible on the screen, looking attentive. The background includes a well-organized home office setup, illustrating a remote medical consultation
An image of a telehealth consultation on a computer screen, showing a doctor in a virtual meeting with a patient. The doctor, dressed in a white coat, appears professional and engaged, while the patient’s face is visible on the screen, looking attentive. The background includes a well-organized home office setup, illustrating a remote medical consultation
4 min read

Tony Blair’s Institute for Global Change has proposed a controversial plan to replace traditional GP surgeries with AI-powered primary care centers. This plan, outlined in a leaked report, advocates for a “national AI-powered health analytics platform” that would group patients based on their healthcare needs rather than their location. The report envisions a future where every UK citizen has a digital health record (DHR), feeding data into the AI platform, which would power an “AI Doctor” – a chatbot with large language model (LLM) capabilities that could provide patients with personalized health advice, symptom checks, and even self-care guidance. While the report highlights the potential benefits of AI in healthcare, it seems to overlook the reality of patient preferences. Expecting patients who haven’t even embraced existing digital services to readily interact with AI doctors via chatbots appears to be a significant leap.