New AI chatbot uses medical protocols to guide patient care decisions. - News-Medical

Oh, splendid — another chatbot is coming to save the NHS and the US healthcare system from itself. This one, called APOLLO AI, has allegedly learned from 25 *billion* medical events, because what could possibly go wrong when you let a statistical model of 25 billion hospital visits start whispering treatment advice to GPs? I suppose the old human system of misdiagnosis, waits, and constant looming litigation was getting just a bit too dreary.

The AI models local disease prevalence, lab configurations, *and* the availability of medications — oh fab, so it knows the paracetamol cupboard is bare in exactly 97% of primary care clinics. And it can 'detect impending acute kidney injury 48 hours before onset,' which sounds damned useful until it tags 17 patients an hour with incipient malady, with no facility to actually prevent it. Because knowing in advance that a stroke is arriving is second-truly to having a bed to put them in, friend.

NHS Barts Health NHS Trust is piloting it for diabetes target therapies, which can really go great or really in rather large letters labelled SURPRISE JAIL. The Colette healthcare founders accept the relevant nuance about safety oversight. Those, dear reader, are the exact words they used before another similar promising launch. But trudge on — we have *two different protocols guiding* decisions, that should adequately confuse any patient doubt. God speed, APOLLO. Let's hope performance matches the 25 billion notches carved on your learned byte-marking history record.