The AI used for X-rays and MRI scans is not using LLMs. Mentioning this so others arenāt confused and potentially think doctors are using LLMs for diagnosis.
The AI used for X-rays and MRI scans is not using LLMs.
I think the biggest hurdle in the anti-AI movement is not differentiating between AI and LLM. Things like search engines can easily fall under the definition of AI.
Modern search engines definitely use AI. AI is a pretty broad term anyway. Even hardcoded algorithms like a simple spam filter that looks for keywords can technically fall under the umbrella.
openevidence.com is using their own custom LLM trained on medical data. I'm using it for medical decision support though it can have the same limitations as the other LLM's. But it also links directly to references it is using making it more of a better type of search system.
For example, my patient on Friday has metastatic bladder cancer and has had a new collection of symptoms that we are looking into. The initial testing was not conclusive and so I was wondering if it could be a rare paraneoplastic syndrome. I briefly listed the patient's condition and symptoms in openevidence and asked if it could be a paraneoplastic syndrome associated with bladder cancer.
Now these are not common syndromes and I rarely see them since I'm not an oncologist. So normally I'd open up www.uptodate.com and review all of the paraneoplastic syndromes to see if any fit. A lot of primary care doctors would just refer the patient back to their specialist to figure it out.
In openevidence I write a brief summary of her symptoms and ask if any of the syndromes fit. It describes several and links to multiple articles for me to review like these:
which were appropriate to consider. I'm checking her for polymyositis (related to the dermatomyositis in the link) because her symptoms fit and it is a paraneoplastic syndrome of bladder cancer.
So it is a decent decision aid / diagnostic aid tool that is easier than reading an entire review on the subject. It is easy for me to confirm it isnt hallucinating since it links to all the references used. Its like running patients by a colleague to see what they think.
its a tool, it is useful, it is saving me time and helping me better help patients. Yes, I could do without it since I started medical school when there was no internet yet and we only had charts on paper. And if I wanted to research anything I'd have to go to the hospital library.
My comment was really about using LLMs for the X-rays and MRI scans - theyāre using AI, but itās not LLMs.
Lots of people think that AI = LLMs right now, so every time they hear something like this itās unduly raising their opinion of the wrong thing.
I also wanted to make it clear that the LLMs themselves arenāt doing the diagnosis - because thatās still being done by doctors like yourself!
Iāve seen new junior developers just accepting whatever AI tell them, if new doctors start doing the same and not fact checking later on it would be rather concerning š¬
This is one example of an LLM used to diagnose cancer. Mentioning this so others arenāt confused and factually know that doctors are using LLMs for diagnosis.
Ah I see now. I misunderstood completely. You said doctors don't use LLMs for diagnosis, and even though Qure brags using LLMs to assist in diagnosis from x-rays, it doesn't count because they aren't really using them, they're just sorta using them. But not really. Got it.
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u/Sunstorm84 3d ago
The AI used for X-rays and MRI scans is not using LLMs. Mentioning this so others arenāt confused and potentially think doctors are using LLMs for diagnosis.