【朝花夕拾】-【经济学人】每日打卡 - The AI will
The AI will see you now
机器人医生参与诊疗
【经济学人】 April， 2019
翻译练习：青澄青果
【朝花夕拾】-【经济学人】每日打卡 - The AI will see you now
For all the technological wonders of modern medicine, from gene-editing to fetal surgery, health care-with its fax machines and clipboards-is often stubbornly antiquated. This outdated era is slowly drawing to a close as, belatedly, the industry catches up with the artificial -intelligence (AI) revolution. And none too soon, argues Eric Topol, a cardiologist and enthusiast for digital medicine.
尽管现代医学引入了先进的技术手段实现了基因编辑和胎儿手术的奇迹，不过一提到诊疗通常人们总是想到那些传真机和写字板之类的东西。虽然迟缓，不过医疗行业还是赶上了人工智能的这趟车，技术设备落伍陈旧的时代也将一去不返。心脏病专家和数字医疗技术的拥趸托普医生可不这么认为，他觉得改变还是稍显迟滞。
【朝花夕拾】-【经济学人】每日打卡 - The AI will see you now
Dr Topol's vision of medicine's future is optimistic. He thinks AI will be particularly useful for repetitive, error prone tasks, such as sifting images, scrutinising heart traces for abnormalities or transcribing doctor's words into patient records. It will be able to harness masses of data to work out optimal treatments (for both conditions and individuals), and improve workflows in hospitals. In short, AI is set to save time, lives and money.
托普对于医疗技术的前景十分看好。他认为人工智能可用于操作那些重复的、人工操作易产生误差的工作，诸如筛查图像、检查心脏异常迹象和抄写病历等。人工智能能够利用庞大的数据提出针对某种疾病或某位病患的优化诊疗方法，从而改进医院的工作流程。一言以蔽之，能救命的同时还省钱省时。
【朝花夕拾】-【经济学人】每日打卡 - The AI will see you now
Much of this is hypothetical-but AI is already outperforming people in a variety of narrow jobs for which it has been trained. Eventually it may be able to diagnose and treat a wide range of diseases. Even then, Dr Topol thinks, humans would oversee the algorithms, rather than being replaced by them.
虽然这些应用大多停留于假设阶段，但经过培训后， 人工智能已经在特定范围的项目上胜出一筹。最终人工智能会被用于诊断和治疗更广泛的疾病。即便如此，托普认为人工仍需履行监控算法的职责而非被取代。
The fear the author harbours is that AI will be used to deepen the assembly-line culture of modern medicine. If it confers a "gift of time" on doctors, he argues that this bonus should be used to prolong consultations, rather than simply speeding through them more efficiently.
笔者的隐忧是人工智能的引入可能会加深医疗服务的流水线化。托普医生反倒觉得正是由于人工智能为医生节约了时间，医生就可以延长诊疗咨询，而非简单快速地将病患过筛子。
【朝花夕拾】-【经济学人】每日打卡 - The AI will see you now
That is a fine idea, but as health swallows an ever-bigger share of national wealth, greater efficiency is exactly what is needed, at least so far as governments and insurers are concerned. Otherwise, rich societies may fail to cope with the needs of ageing and growing populations. An extra five minutes spent chatting with a patient is costly as well as valuable. The AI revolution will also empower managerial bean-counters, who will increasingly be able to calibrate and appraise every aspects of treatment. The autonomy of the doctor will inevitably be undermined, especially, perhaps, in public-health systems which are duty-bound to trim inessential costs.
这个主意不错，不过对于政府和保险公司而言，因为医疗费用占用政府财政支出越来越大，确实急需提高效率。否则即使富裕国家也无法应对日益膨胀的人口和老龄化人群。即使是医生多给出的五分钟诊疗时间有其价值不过成本不低。人工智能还可以帮助财务精算人员不断调整和评估诊疗的方方面面。结果是，尤其在公费医疗体系中为了削减不必要的开支，可能医生的主导权会弱化。
The Hippocratic Oath holds that there is an art to medicine as well as a science, and that " warmth, sympathy and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug". That is not just a platitude: the patients of sympathetic physicians have been shown to fare better. As Dr Topol says, it is hard to imagine that a robot could really replace a human doctor. Yet as demand for health care outstrips the supply of human carers, the future may involve consultations on smartphones and measurements monitored by chatbots. The considerately warmed stethoscope, placed gently on a patient's back, may become a relic of the past.
根据希波克拉底誓言，医学既是门科学也是门艺术，“温暖、同情、理解可能远超外科手术刀和药剂”。此言绝非陈词滥调，因为已经证实那些共情医生的病患往往恢复得更好。托普医生认为很难想象由机器人替代医生的职责。不过将来如果确实医生人手不够用的情况下，可能仍需借助于智能手机以及聊天机器人在线监控测量结果等手段。医生贴心地捂热听诊器然后温柔地放在病人的后背听诊的画面就只会成为历史遗迹了。
【朝花夕拾】-【经济学人】每日打卡 - The AI will see you now
In the end technology may even be able to solve the empathy deficit. Japanese engineers are working on robots that simulate human presence, or sonzaikan. A machine could never truly develop the shared humanity that helps patients heal. That doesn't mean it cannot be faked.
科技也会用于解决共情缺失的问题。日本的工程师正在研制仿人机器人。虽然无论如何机器人也不会产生那种帮助病患康复的人情味，不过也许人工智能可以模仿出这种感觉。
