AI scribe's false drug claim leaves patient devastated after surgery
Error by AI scribe during medical appointment leaves patient devastated
A new report warns that AI medical scribes can 'hallucinate' false symptoms, with serious consequences for patients. Rebecca Green's urologist's AI scribe falsely recorded that she micro-dosed psychedelic mushrooms, which appeared in a post-operative letter to her GP. Green, who was receiving workers' compensation, feared the error could impact her case. The report found other errors, including wrong body parts and misdiagnoses, and highlighted inconsistent consent practices. Regulators are reviewing the tools, but none are currently approved.
I was gobsmacked and in tears … it made up that I take [psychedelic] mushrooms. I have never done mushrooms in my life.
- pizzly
The other side is that I have witnessed doctors making mistakes personally on medical files. They are overworked and only see you for 15 minutes and in a rush to kick you out and so of course they make errors. It would be interesting to compare whether transcription software or humans make the most mistakes. Guessing the answer will be very nuanced such as transcription software failing for accents not trained on, how over worked the clinic is etc.
- lmpdev
I think we need to keep in mind that medical and pharmacy mistakes are still extremely common
Recently my partner received a prescription with instructions that were over the LD50 (we caught it as it was obviously too high). We reported it but it was likely the case of the clerk simply hitting the wrong button and not double checking the resulting sticker
I’d be interested to see the AI transcription failure rate compared with existing medical/pharmacy rates
- red75prime
It's easy to bring down the hammer of scope insensitivity by vividly describing a single person's struggle. The question is how AI affects error rates.