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One Medical Diagnostic Algorithm to Protect your Practice

Posted by Tom Lombardo | Fri, Aug 15, 2014 @ 10:00 AM

Medical Diagnostic AlgorithmIs practicing medicine about the patient or the billing codes? Is it about doing your job or proving that you did your job?

Some physicians feel that the widely acknowledged shift happening in health care today went the wrong direction, and that the diagnostic promise of technology has not yet arrived while the burdens of computerized data gathering and record keeping certainly have.

Not all algorithms are created equal, and the ones underlying diagnosis have remained elusive. As early as the 1970s, when the most advanced computers in the world were far less powerful than your smart phone, doctors and computer scientists claimed that perfect computer-generated diagnosis would revolutionize medicine by cutting costs and improving efficiency.

Today, even when supercomputers can win championships in chess and bridge, the dream of computer-generated diagnosis remains a dream. In fact Watson, the IBM creation that won $1million by beating top human competitors on Jeopardy, has already been retooled for medical diagnosis, although with no television-worthy breakthroughs so far.

Technology has had its successes – for example, between 47% and 70% of doctors and medical students use Wikipedia. But when it comes to diagnosis, Apple’s digital personal assistant, Siri, and Amazon’s recommendation feature have contributed more to medical diagnostics than Watson, because they’re able to take context into account in such a way that a user can find what they’re probably looking for in large sets of disparate data. Artificial intelligence has reached the level where it can do this quite well, and when acting as an aide for a doctor scouring reference data, it can shine.

But that’s not diagnosis. Computers have no consciousness and therefore no understanding; slime mold, one of the simplest living organisms and one completely devoid of neurological activity, can out-understand any computer. Amazon’s recommendations or the fact that Siri knows what you’re probably asking about result from clever algorithms based upon innumerable little selections made each second.

And the system is looking for just one answer to explain your input. You ask Siri for “movies,” and she assumes you mean movies playing tonight in a theater near where you live– so rather than listing all movies ever made, she asks you which movie theater’s schedule you want to see. It seems like intelligence, but it’s actually a series of good guesses. And if she’s wrong, there are no consequences.

Diagnosis ends with an intuitive leap of understanding that might heal or even save someone. And the answer is often not singular, since a combination of causes often conspires to generate the symptoms being analyzed. No machine can do that. Discussing this fact, Dr. Gurpreet Dhawiwal at the UCSF Medical Center, considered one of the preeminent diagnosticians in the world, said that “thinking is our most important procedure.”

Perhaps more than most doctors, independent physicians crave freedom of thought. For most doctors like you, diagnosis is not merely about prescribing a drug or finding the correct billing code. It’s about healing, and regardless of how much time you spend on data entry you know that the human touch can have a huge impact on your practice’s success.

Medical CodingThis brings us back to technology’s shift in the wrong direction. Doctors now spend 22% of their time on nonclinical data entry to meet documentation and monitoring requirements, and most of that time comes at the expense of paying human-like attention to their patients. Further warping that equation is the fact that one in six doctor’s visits this year will be virtual.

Technology’s impact on your profession will not abate any time soon, and since it consumes so much time it’s worth it to find technological solutions that actually create time. While you’re at it, you may as well put a high-functioning algorithm to work for you as well. Many of your patients pay for services with checks and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future (technology can’t yet replace the signature on a check, either), so making sure this process is as painless and as profitable as possible can be a bright spot in the technology landscape.

The algorithm you want will produce the fewest mistakes possible, so your staff never needs to confront an upset patient who knows their check is good but had it declined by your processing company. Thanks to over thirty years of experience worked into our analytical methods, we provide the highest approval ratio in the industry. Combine that with Remote Deposit Capture, and you can deposit checks directly from your receptionist’s desk. We have a package set up just for you. Learn more here.

 

Medical Remote Deposit Capture Insider's Guide

Topics: Medical

Written by Tom Lombardo