38: AI Doctor: A Friend or Foe? A Novel Analysis of the Impact of AI Doctors on Patients and Healthcare

Music City Center 

Artificial intelligence (AI) doctors are chatbots that diagnose patients on the Internet using algorithms to determine patients' condition and need for medical treatment. I build a mathematical model to investigate how AI doctors affect patients and the efficiency and utilization of healthcare. I hypothesize that AI doctors improve patients' healthcare utilization decisions, alleviate healthcare access inequity, improve healthcare efficiency and patients' well-being. I also hypothesize that more trust in AI doctors benefits patients. My analysis suggests that the hypotheses hold only when AI doctors' diagnosis is very accurate. When AI doctors are not very accurate, their impacts on patients and healthcare vary with patient types (the severity of their medical condition and the cost they face to access healthcare). Specifically, AI doctors change patients' decisions to go to hospitals when patients are moderately uncertain about their need to go there. AI doctors alleviate healthcare inequity by increasing healthcare utilization by patients with low access and discouraging utilization by patients with easy access. AI doctors benefit patients with moderate access to hospitals, sever

artificial intelligence

healthcare

public health

probability 

Section on Medical Devices and Diagnostics