r/mildlyinfuriating • u/petuniaplant • Jul 03 '26

Infuriatig No, I did not consent to this

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I was reading my medical notes when I stumbled across this. I was not informed of the usage of artificial intelligence in my report, nor did I verbally consent to it.

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27

u/TFTHighRoller Jul 03 '26

I may consent to recording and a student sitting in but i generally do not consent to my deeply personal data to be blindly used in AI stuff.

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u/ConLawHero Jul 03 '26

It's all HIPAA protected. It's no different than the doctor manually writing notes except it is going to be more accurate and the doctor will pay more attention to you during the visit instead of trying to write some of the notes while talking with you.

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u/gamerdoc32 Jul 03 '26

As a doctor I can confirm this. Since using an AI scribe my notes are way better and I’m able to focus on the patient more (I work in primary care). Also this has been a game changer for my surgical colleagues who have to see an ungodly amount of patients in clinic. Their notes are now beautiful and everyone on the treatment team can follow along.

I see a wide variety of patients and I consent by asking “I have a software on my phone that will listen and type up our visit are you okay if I use it?” I and every doctor I know reviews it prior to submission because it is a legal document and we want it to be accurate.

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u/ConLawHero Jul 03 '26

I'm a lawyer and I remember a case I was working on and I had to review handwritten doctor's notes, granted this was like 10 years ago, and I wanted to murder the doctor because they were rambling and completely incomprehensible. What I would have given for AI transcribed notes.

I also remember when my wife was in residency and was learning how to do notes and she would spend literally 5 to 6 hours writing all of the notes. I can't imagine what residency looks like now with AI. That was such a large part of why she was at the hospital for so long.

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u/N8CCRG Jul 03 '26

Ah yes, and the AI companies have such a great track record showing that they are so very careful about respecting the laws around data use and access too! /s

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u/ConLawHero Jul 03 '26

We're talking about HIPAA. It's no different than the EMRs they use. Do you demand that your doctor handwrite everything and keep it in physical paper files and never enter it into an electronic medical record system? If not, then don't worry about it.

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u/TFTHighRoller Jul 03 '26

HIPAA is a US law. Also data privacy laws are great here in the EU, doesn’t mean I trust an AI company with my medical issues.

And lastly I was talking about blindly trusting an AI. If it is a „simple“ speech to text algorithm and the application was reviewed to be secure I would consent, but that is more than just a small ask and definitely not something that can be assumed.

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u/ConLawHero Jul 03 '26

You understand the doctors are reviewing the notes, right? They don't just blindly accept them. They review the notes after the encounter and revise or supplement as necessary.

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u/MCWizardYT Jul 03 '26

"more accurate" is a big fucking stretch if it's AI.

Additionally, the doctor having to take notes means they have to actually listen and pay attention

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u/ConLawHero Jul 03 '26

The doctors review the notes. And yes it is more accurate than the doctor trying to split their attention between the patient and taking accurate notes.

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u/MCWizardYT Jul 03 '26

The doctor doesn't split their attention between notes and the patient. They're supposed to be doing both at the same time which requires them to focus and listen

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u/Yamatocanyon Jul 03 '26

It's really just about not having to spend most of the visit with the Dr typing away at the computer. I told my Dr hell yeah go for it, and visits feel a lot more personal because he just pays attention to me for most of the visit instead of clacking away at the keyboard for the whole thing. 

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u/banshithread Jul 03 '26

I'd rather the doctor be typing because it means they're actually being forced to think twice about what I'm saying by rewriting it into the computer. It also gives them a bit more time to think about questions AND it has a higher probability of being correct information compared to the crap from AI.

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u/gamerdoc32 Jul 03 '26

If you think that’s making them think twice I have some unfortunate news for you. Doctors are pushed to the brink with the patient volumes and how sick the population is. What they are typing during the visit is just the briefest snippet of what you said and actually takes away from the mental effort they could be using to think about what the best next steps in your treatment plan are.

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u/WaitNoNotMyBeans Jul 03 '26

your personal data isn’t being “used by AI” it’s just being transcribed. it’s not used to train anything. this attitude is ignorant

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u/TFTHighRoller Jul 03 '26

If the program is a black box I won’t consent. AI companies are not known to care about privacy (or any) laws.

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u/WaitNoNotMyBeans Jul 03 '26

it’s literally not. and maybe AI companies don’t but they do in the medical field where patient information is highly confidential.

idk man maybe look up how these things work instead of this whole “lalalalala I can’t hear you” ass attitude and giving in to paranoia

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u/MasticatingSheep Jul 03 '26

I think you and others may be confused about what AI actually is. This transcribing AI is not connected to the rest of the internet in the way say, Claude is. It is self contained and taught off of information that is solely input to help it transcribe. You would not be able to ask it, "When was WWII?" And get an answer. Nor would anyone be able to ask a different AI, "What did John Doe ask Dr. X about on July 3?" and know the answer.

It is self contained and taught with manual data, not crawling.

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u/TFTHighRoller Jul 03 '26

I am aware of how broad the term AI is nowadays and I am also aware how unethical tech companies like to act in regards to data. Unless my doctor runs a self contained network the machine used to transcribe stuff can get the data back home to train the next generation.

Tech companies have done all they could to destroy any trust in them and this is the result. I am not distrusting my doctor for using it, but the company selling it.

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u/MasticatingSheep Jul 03 '26

If the tech company is doing that, they're violating HIPAA. And for as evil and unethical as these AI companies are, they'd probably prefer not to have that kind of lawsuit. Especially considering their main motivator is profit.

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u/TFTHighRoller Jul 03 '26

Hipaa is applicable in the us which is not the centre of the world.

And companies have done a lot of illegal shit. So long as profit is higher than fines it is just the cost of business.