Skip to main content

The Patient Who Asked Too Many Questions: How AI Is Changing the Conversation in Medicine

HEALTHCARE · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE · PATIENT EXPERIENCE Years ago, at a government hospital, I heard a surgeon say about a patient who kept asking him, "She must be a teacher." He was half-joking. She turned out to be one. It became my private joke: anyone who asks that many questions must be a teacher. I didn't know I'd think of that remark again. I think of it now because the patient who asks too many questions is no longer rare. She is in my family. Perhaps you have encountered her, too.   A new kind of conversation My mother, my uncles, and my aunts are not medical professionals. When an unfamiliar symptom appears, they don't know the terminology, the likely causes, or the right questions to ask. But they have found ChatGPT and Gemini, and they talk to them like buddies. A symptom prompts a question, an answer prompts another, and nobody waits. Voice input matters most. They don't have to type a carefully worded query or know the medical term. They speak...
Post a Comment

TIME TO MAKE MEMORIES AGAIN




My brain seemed overflowing with data, erasing bits of my memory. I was requiring more storage/backup to sustain.


 The technology came to me as a panacea, rescuing me from the predicament. I emptied the 1400cc container in my head. I noted every event, reminder, celebration, payment, and renewal. Voila. Nothing misses ever again.


 I decided to pause all birthday and anniversary reminders from me. I informed my family of the ensuing changes in trends.


 My son decided to follow me and made a quick move. He outsmarted me in making his calendar and shared mine with his Google account.


 All was going well till my son surprised us with a call to my clinic. He wished me in an excited tone on my anniversary and asked for his father. I laughed and reminded him that the calendar he had shared was to remind me of my ‘mummy–papa’s anniversary’ and not his mummy-papa’s.


 We both laughed till he decided to check on his grandpa and grandma. I still wonder at times if he has updated his calendar or if mine still serves his purpose…

 

Labels:

Comments

  1. Sunidhi KashyapNovember 1, 2023 at 7:12 PM

    Haha he still relies on your calendar to check important events!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousDecember 18, 2023 at 7:17 AM

      Swati you are so suave in your musings that it directly knocks on our hearts ♥️

      Delete
  2. AnonymousDecember 21, 2023 at 7:19 PM

    Love it!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 28, 2024 at 6:44 PM

    Interesting incident

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WHATSAPP FORWARDS

"You will not read any of my WhatsApp messages and so it is useless to send you anything.” My mother said to me. I acknowledged her by my silence mentally reciting," I read all that you sent to me". So, here I am busy reading all about Indian spices and medicinal herbs used as daily household ingredients, thereby indulging in more studies on naturopathy as compared to any other ‘pathy’ which has side effects. I speed dialled my mother when my patient refused to undergo the procedure of scaling to clean her teeth in favour of 'alum', or "phitkari," a desi nuskha. No wonder patients shirk away from scaling. I ruminate. "I just called you up to confirm if you WhatsApped something to my patient "I vented. Ever since, I have been scrolling through all her erstwhile messages to know more about natural healthier medicaments, their benefits and roles in dentistry and health. Oh! WhatsApp was not there when I was a student. No wonder, my gold ...
18 comments
Read more

THE FRUIT OF LABOR

Notification alerts continued one after the other and I knew it had to be my sister. Next morning her WhatsApp did not seem so interesting. Thank God! I never got up at midnight to see these. There were images of mud, plants and potatoes. Nothing new, I put it aside without a thought and sipped my early morning tea. As I read further, scrolling down the images was her excited note on her home grown organic potatoes. Now that was a bait I asked her "miraculous, since when have you started all this". "While composting for my garden I had accidentally left a potato in the garbage ditch. This was my discovery just today" she answered and I could imagine her admiring those potatoes. "Great guns," I responded. The matter rested after this for a few months. The feathers were ruffled again as she posted images of tomato, eggplants and potato plants neatly planted along the sidewalls, her today's endeavor .Thanks to our family group messaging system, ginger a...
13 comments
Read more

INHERITANCE

As a student I had to commute in local buses as prevalent during those times. My wait for the arrival of the next bus forced me to notice an old lady curiously observing me. I pretended to ignore her but still found myself to be a subject of her curiosity. Undeterred she stared, unabashed I turned my back towards her, only to find her blatantly changing sides to face me again. Realizing my awkwardness in avoiding her she questioned me about my grandparents and excitedly mentioned my mother’s name to confirm my filial descent. She then introduced herself as an old neighbour of my grandparents who had seen my mother as a teenager and my resemblance to her. Thank God! I whispered as I took a seat and bade a farewell to my new acquaintance. Genetics and not Facebook turned out to be the most potent tool in uniting the long-lost, figures in my mind.  As I was having my morning walk session, I could see groups of people performing yoga and yet another group indulged in a discourse on a...
10 comments
Read more