Ivan Kavalerov

From a pretty old CNBC article: 

Sadly, Emily’s case is not unique. According to a recent study by Johns Hopkins, more than 250,000 people in the United States die every year because of medical mistakes, making it the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer.

Other studies report much higher figures, claiming the number of deaths from medical error to be as high as 440,000. The reason for the discrepancy is that physicians, funeral directors, coroners and medical examiners rarely note on death certificates the human errors and system failures involved. Yet death certificates are what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rely on to post statistics for deaths nationwide.

From https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/22/medical-errors-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-america.html

And just a couple of days ago Eric Topol also looked at this topic: https://erictopol.substack.com/p/diagnostic-medical-errors-are-a-huge

To implement A.I. into medical practice at scale, we need compelling data, especially when it comes to making an accurate medical diagnosis. My friend, Craig Spencer, an emergency room physician, recently wrote an editorial on this matter, concluding: “But until artificial intelligence can develop a gut feeling, honed by working with thousands of patients, a few near-misses, and some humbling cases that stick with you, we’ll need the healing hands of real providers. And that might be forever.”

Yes, we will always need humans-in-the-loop, the healing hands. But to trust the potential role for A.I. to help us deal with the huge problem of diagnostic errors, a desperate unmet need, it requires incontrovertible evidence in the real and often messy world of medical practice. I remain optimistic that we’ll see that eventually, but it’s on us humans to get it done—and soon.

Now this is on us, and now more than ever it is the time to build.