A future without doctors? - 6 Minute English

Hi! Neil from BBC Learning

English here.

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Hello. This is 6 Minute English

from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil.

And I'm Sam.

Are you feeling well, Sam?

No headache or sore throat?

No, I feel fine thanks, Neil.

Why do you ask?

Well, I've been reading some

inspirational stories about the

doctors and nurses fighting Covid.

When I was a boy, I always

dreamed of becoming a doctor.

Ah, I see. Have you ever

been in hospital?

Yes, I have, and I remember the

nurse's bedside manner - you

know, the kind and caring way

that doctors and nurses treat

people who are ill.

Nowadays more and more

of the jobs that

humans do are being carried

out by machines. But I doubt

that a doctor's bedside manner

could easily be replaced

by a robot.

In this programme, we'll be

discussing whether the revolution

in artificial intelligence, often

shortened to 'AI', could replace

human doctors and nurses.

We'll be asking: can you imagine

a future without doctors?

In fact, machines are already

doing some of the jobs

traditionally done by doctors -

scanning people's bodies to

detect skin cancer, for example.

Yes, that's true, Sam, and it

links to my quiz question which

is about human skin. It's a

well-known fact that skin is the

human body's largest organ - but

how much skin does the average

adult have? Is it:

a) 2 square metres?,

b) 3 square metres? or,

c) 4 square metres?

Of course our skin gets loose as we

age but I can't believe there's 3

square metres of it! I'll say the

answer is a) 2 square metres.

OK, we'll find out if that's correct

later. Every year in the UK over

5 million people are treated for

skin cancer. Catch it early and

your chances of survival

are increased.

Usually a skin specialist, or

dermatologist, will examine your

skin using a handheld microscope.

But in 2017, a team of researchers

at Stanford Medical School made

an exciting announcement.

Here's Oxford University researcher

Daniel Susskind, telling BBC World

Service programme, The Big Idea,

what the medics at Stanford

had invented:

A team of researchers at Stamford

last year announced the development

of a system that, if you give it a

photo of a freckle it can tell you as

accurately as twenty-one leading

dermatologists whether or not

that freckle is cancerous.

The Stanford medical team had

invented an AI system to analyse

freckles - small brown spots found

on people s skin, especially

on pale skin.

As it turned out the AI programme

was better than human doctors at

telling whether a freckle was

harmless or cancerous - connected

to some type of cancer.

So, it seems that artificial intelligence

is already replacing humans when

it comes to detecting cancer -

and doing a better job of it.

But Daniel Susskind isn't convinced.

One reason is that AI systems still

need humans to programme them -

and as it turns out, knowing

exactly how doctors detect

illness remains something

of a mystery.

Here's Daniel Susskind again in

conversation with BBC World

Service programme, The Big Idea:

If you ask a doctor how it is they

make a diagnosis, they might be

able to point you to particularly

revealing parts of a reference book

or give you a few rules of thumb,

but ultimately they'd struggle

they'd say again it requires things

like creativity and judgment, and these

things are very difficult to articulate -

and so traditionally it's been thought

very hard to automate - if a human

being can't explain how they do

these special things, where on

earth do we begin in writing

instructions for a machine to follow?

Most doctors find it difficult to

explain how they make a diagnosis -

their judgement about what

someone's particular sickness is,

made by examining them.

Diagnosing someone's illness is

complicated but there are

some rules of thumb. A rule of

thumb is a practical but

approximate way of doing something.

For example, when cooking, a good

rule of thumb is two portions of

water to one portion of rice.

Exactly. And because identifying

sickness is so difficult, Daniel

says 'where on earth do we begin

writing instructions for a machine?'

We use phrases like where,

how or what on earth to

show feelings like anger,

surprise or disbelief.

I might show surprise by asking

Sam, how on earth did you

know the answer to that?

Ha ha! I guess you're talking

about your quiz question, Neil?

And you needn't be so

surprised - I'm naturally brainy!

Of course you are. In my quiz

question I asked Sam how

much skin there is on

an adult human body.

And I said it was

a) 2 square metres.

Which was the correct answer!

With your brains I think you'd

make a good doctor, Sam, and I'm

sure you'd have a good

bedside manner too.

You mean, the kind and caring

way that doctors and nurses

treat their patients. OK, let's

recap the rest of the vocabulary,

starting with freckle - a small brown

spot on someone's skin.

Freckles are usually harmless, but

some skin spots can be cancerous -

connected to cancer.

A doctor's diagnosis is their

judgement about what someone's

particular sickness or disease is.

A rule of thumb is a useful but

approximate way of doing or

measuring something.

And finally, we use phrases like

where on earth..? as a way to

show emotions like anger,

surprise or disbelief.

That's all for this programme

but join us for the next edition of

6 Minute English when we'll

discuss another trending topic

and the related vocabulary.

Why on earth would you

miss it? Goodbye for now!

Goodbye!