As a Medicine student, Technology can make doctors pointless. What a doctor do? He inspect the patient and prescribe medicines. That's all and its' inspection, while depend on his experience, can never be 100% accurate.
That is, if a new technological evolution, can make it possible to diagnose the human body with a simple and small device, no one will probably need a doctor and the device can prescribe you the treatment with even more accuracy.
You can also take daily inspection with the device and it'll follow your health and gives you suggestions based on that.
You may think I'm too optimistic, but who thought that one day we can see the interior of the human body without surgery?
Rather than rendering doctors pointless, perhaps the technological advances are changing the role of doctors. The same thing is happening in the education field.
Doctors perhaps need to start specializing more in areas where it is harder for technology to reach. Maybe they need to think more holistically (something difficult for computers to do). Perhaps they need to actually learn about people in intricate detail - about their diet, habits, health history, etc. prior to diagnosing. Perhaps they need to become strictly health advisors, or partners of health. Maybe they should perform weekly/monthly/yearly meetings with individuals, learning about them over time through spending time with them. Decisions would be truly informed and they would develop true care for the person (and quality as a result).
In addition, it's important that doctors stop being viewed as creatures with omnipotent and infallible knowledge and decision making powers (I know there are exceptions to this but I believe it's true for a lot of people).
learn about people in intricate detail - about their diet, habits, health history, etc. prior to diagnosing
It takes lot of time, and the patient won't remember anything. However, the device can know all that and with precision. The patient doesn't need to tell the device that he smokes, but it'll discover alone and with high accuracy. It can uses for example, a combination of radiographic images of the lungs, some proteins concentration in the blood....
I develop clinical decision support software for a living and our experience has been that the best medical outcomes, particularly in relation to CVD, diabetes and CKD, are found in creating software tools that supplement the skill of the practitioner. Increasingly we find ourselves moving away from the AI based, expert system approach to decision support.
It is important to remember that GPs are much more than diagnostic engines. GPs are concerned with the entire health and wellbeing of their patients - mental, emotional and physical. The human aspect of medicine isn't something I would want to see us lose. Do I think we can build software that can help great GPs to be excellent GPs? Absolutely.
That is, if a new technological evolution, can make it possible to diagnose the human body with a simple and small device, no one will probably need a doctor and the device can prescribe you the treatment with even more accuracy.
You can also take daily inspection with the device and it'll follow your health and gives you suggestions based on that.
You may think I'm too optimistic, but who thought that one day we can see the interior of the human body without surgery?