C‘It is a new digital habit, as comfortable as it is risky, that is taking hold in Italy. More and more people submit their medical reports, before or as well as to the attending physician, artificial intelligence. A few clicks are enough to load an X -ray, a blood test or a magnetic resonance imaging. And then away, the question: “What does this value mean? Is it serious?». And the answer comes almost immediately. Be careful, however: whether that answer is correct or not is not known. Also because there is no doctor behind that analysis.
Artificial intelligence instead of the doctor
This behavior, apparently, is becoming very common. So as to raise the official reaction by the Privacy Guarantor, who decided to intervene with a press release That warns against this trend that considers dangerous. His is a pressing invitation to caution. Although there are no precise data, the reports that patients listen to the voice of a chatbot to understand how they are health are there and there are many.
One click and two big risks. The first: sensitive data accessible
Using a chatbot as a doctor may seem like a brilliant shortcut. But, Under simplicity, two pitfalls are hidden that the guarantor focuses. The first is invisible, but very powerful: privacy. The medical data uploaded – acronyms, numbers, reports – is not just information. They are fragments of their health. And once sent to platforms not designed to manage health information, they can escape control. They become accessible, duplicable And, in extreme cases, also marketable.
The habit of asking for diagnosis of artificial intelligence grows in Italy. The Privacy Guarantor launches the alarm (Getty)
The second risk: a chatbot is not a doctor
The second pitfall is thinner, but equally serious: The veracity of the answer. The chatbot replies, it’s true. But he is not a doctor. He does not know us, he does not know what other drugs we are taking, he does not have a context. It may be wrong. He could say that he is calm when you shouldn’t or, on the contrary, scare unnecessarily. For this reason, the Guarantor launches the alarm: qualified supervision is not an optional, it is an imperative. A diagnosis is never only a sum of values, but a story to be interpreted with experience.
The limits of artificial intelligence in medicine
Artificial intelligence is a reality in the world of health. Thinking machines are increasingly present between lanes and clinics And, in a country where the health system arranges under the weight of waiting lists, lack of staff and increasing requests, the IA could become an important ally to streamline, order, speed up. But be careful: this evolution, however promising, needs to be accompanied by clear and skills rules. Saying “works”, is not enough.
Relying on the diagnosis generated by a chatbot is dangerous
And this is where the border becomes delicate. Why Interpreting a medical exam is not like reading a cooking recipe. A “high” or “low” value is not enough to understand what happens in the body. The experience is needed. The context is needed. The risk of error is not theoretical. The Guarantor says it without turns of words: the first patient who will interrupt an important therapy because “the Ia said” could be upon us. When it happens, land consequences of a digital diagnosis will be completely real.