In good news for anyone who’s ever dreamed of having a robot doctor, NVIDIA has teamed up with Hippocratic AI to develop AI-powered “healthcare agents”. These agents are designed to provide basic patient care over video calls, offering medical advice and answering patient questions.
The agents can also talk to patients on the phone to schedule appointments, conduct pre-operative outreach, perform post-discharge follow-ups and more, according to a NVIDIA press release.
Hippocratic AI claims that its AI agents outperform human nurses in several areas and cost USD$9 (AUD$13.79) per hour to operate.
“With generative AI, we have the opportunity to address some of the most pressing needs of the healthcare industry,” said Munjal Shah, cofounder and CEO of Hippocratic AI.
“We can help mitigate widespread staffing shortages and increase access to high-quality care — all while improving outcomes for patients,” said Munjal Shah, cofounder and CEO of Hippocratic AI, in the release.
“NVIDIA’s technology stack is critical to achieving the conversational speed and fluidity necessary for patients to naturally build an emotional connection with Hippocratic’s Generative AI Healthcare Agents.”
In a demonstration video released by NVIDIA, an AI “nurse” named Rachel interacts with a post-appendectomy patient, providing instructions for medication and answering questions about antibiotic safety. Hippocratic AI also touts survey data showing its AI agents outperform human nurses in metrics like bedside manner and patient education.
Obviously, this is very cool. A future utopia where human error is eliminated and robot doctors have infinite time and patience to deal with our every medical need is the stuff of dreams. But we are not there yet. And this in-between phase (if we ever get to that utopia) might prove tricky.
NVIDIA and Hippocratic AI argue that this technology can help combat staffing shortages and lower costs for patients, which is obviously grand. But the idea of AI replacing human nurses raises some concerns in the short term.
The nursing crisis that is seemingly plaguing every country on the planet is rooted in poor working conditions and inadequate compensation. Ideally, this kind of technology is a step in the right direction towards alleviating that issue, as long as mass adoption isn’t used as justification for reducing staff.
But don’t expect to be dealing with a robot nurse anytime soon. The timeline for mass adoption isn’t clear, and such a rollout would depend on regulatory approvals and acceptance by medical professionals.
Main image: NVIDIA
