Do You Trust AI to Read Your Health Reports?
While AI seems to be everywhere and do everything, you should not trust it to fully take over interpreting your lab results in place of an actual medical provider. AI serves ultimately only as a fast, very fancy tool. Tools make work faster and (hopefully) more efficient but they still depend on a discerning, skilled designer and an experienced, wise wielder. AI is no different. In medicine, scientists and clinicians apply AI tools to solve problems of drug design, interpretation of complex genetic data, and more with great benefit to patients. Still, there are interface points with patients where a real person is best for applying and explaining what tests and reports found in a real person. Don’t settle for an AI printout to guide you on your health care.
First, realize that AI or Artificial Intelligence is just a shorthand way of describing a computer program which a programmer has designed to process large amounts of complex data at a very fast rate. Yes, the computer using this program can work through millions or even billions of digital processes in the time that it takes you to read this paragraph. Even then, it is dependent on the designer’s ability to arrange the processing in a way to produce meaningful results (Neural net AIs are still susceptible to this; the process of arranging them is just a lot more obscure and harder to double-check). Yet, in the real world, ‘good’ results are only as good as their inclusion of all the factors in your health. Let’s look at some past and present examples of how AI only gets a patient or their provider so far.
Over the years, I have seen many helpful reports from lab companies offering advanced testing modalities. The most common historically has been genetic testing reports, but more recently, companies are trying to combine the results of a panel of various tests to provide their customers with a pathway to optimal health. This by necessity requires some form of AI (at least a complex algorithm, if not what is usually termed AI) to process the 20 to 100 results that come from such blood and urine tests. The reports this process produces appear bright, sharp, and colorful, stuffed with promising insights, but does it really help people achieve healthier lives?
Sure, there are instances where people with a developing health condition catch something early by doing such random, broad lab screening panels. Some find their blood sugar is running high or their livers are inflamed or their kidneys are weakening. This should happen already in a medical clinic with a provider practicing good medicine, but for many who never go to a doctor, they get their news from these DIY lab screening panels.
If that were all these panels intended, then maybe it would be worth it, but nowadays AI attempts to go much further than diagnosing diabetes or liver disease. AI programs create a variety of health scores, and their designers then produce an aesthetically pleasing digital report estimating a person’s health age and other factors. Diets are recommended. Supplements are sometimes advised.
Having seen some of these reports, they are partially helpful and partially misleading. Once you get past the benefits of early diabetes detection type alerts, you get into unproven nuances of whether an AST or ALT liver test of 30 is that much different than a result of 18. You get into the weeds of whether to be concerned that your pancreatic lipase is a 30 or a 40. You also wonder if your potassium level is too low at 3.9 versus 4.1.
To really know if those liver tests are worth chasing, the real provider needs to ask you about alcohol use, Tylenol use, and other dietary habits. You probably never needed a pancreatic lipase test if you had no abdomen pain or GI dysfunction. For 99% of people the difference between a potassium of 3.9 and 4.1 has no bearing on your health. The AI program cannot answer those questions which only a knowledgeable, experienced, and wise medical provider can answer when they are caring for you.
So the next time you see that advertisement for the magical blood panel of tests which promise to unlock your health pitfalls and potentials, think twice. If you have already done such panels, don’t depend on the AI report nor on your own medical skills (unless maybe you are a trained provider). Instead, find a real flesh-and-blood medical provider you trust to care for you in ways that a computer AI program cannot. You will have a much better chance of achieving a healthier, more abundant life with a live provider than with a non-living AI program.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
