Ask any Brit and they’ll have an opinion on how the current government handles the NHS. As more and more services seem to be sliced, diced and privatised, it’s becoming increasingly evident that the NHS is shifting further and further away from Nye Bevan’s original ambition for a medical care service that provided point-of-need help, regardless of wealth. Well, it shouldn’t surprise you that Labour’s Keir Starmer, the current leader of the Conservatives’ opposition, has an opinion. If Starmer has anything to do with it, the NHS is going digital… but is that solution just a fragment of a much bigger, more pressing matter?

This week, Starmer shared his vision for a new, digital mode of working within the NHS with the Guardian – if Labour’s leader gets his way, the service will be streamlined. Starmer blasts the current regime: “Tories have run the NHS into the ground with ambulances not arriving until too late, swift GP appointments a thing of the past and more than 7 million people waiting for treatment. But it’s about a lot more than that.”

NHS is going digital – what does this fix?

Yet to the average citizen, it’s not always apparent how the government’s edicts actually affect the outcomes; it’s obfuscated. On behalf of his party, Starmer has outlined a “health mission” that restructures the NHS from the ground up.  Moving from an analogue system to a digital system signals a shift towards showcasing the UK’s flourishing life sciences sector, and utilising an entire population’s data to work on a truly national scale. With so much data segregated, it can’t benefit the bigger picture.

“we are announcing details of our health mission with the clear aim of making the NHS fit for the future – a prevention-first model and a shift from hospitals to the community so that illness is caught early and at home, not late and in hospital.”
– Starmer’s manifesto

Post-Covid care

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An AI assistant for doctors – is it just the tonic?

ChatGPT seems to be changing the world of work in real-time – modern workers are finding new ways to engage with their sectors across every industry. Yet whilst the AI software’s seemingly limitless capabilities promise to streamline everyday tasks with automated, wholly digital solutions to strategic thinking, Tonic App has now launched an assistant, Dr Tonic, that promises to streamline the practices of physicians, too. They’ve made an AI assistant for doctors, and it’s changing the way they work.

It’s a technology that saves time, but is it a technology that can save lives?

The stress of going to the doctors is universal, and not only does Tonic App’s advancement promise to support GPs and physicians with medical, administrative and personal tasks – it’s likely to have a direct effect on the patient’s experience.

Tech to save time; tech to save lives

As per Presswire‘s feature, Dr Tonic supports medical doctors go about their day-to-day tasks; it’s powered by ChatGPT ADI, the LLM (large language model) that’s trained by OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT.

Built into the Tonic App, it’s designed to make it easier for doctors to retrieve information, summarise medical records and key findings and intuitively write templates for patient referrals. Not only that, it will translate even the most confusing of health jargon for patients, and work as a personal assistant in the more traditional sense – it’s even got HR capabilities built in.

“We are excited to launch Dr Tonic because we believe this is the start of a new era for healthcare. AI finally enters the day-to-day operations of healthcare professionals, after years of promise”, says Daniela Seixas, the CEO of Tonic App, and a medical doctor herself.

“It is estimated that up to 40% of doctors’ time is desk work, particularly in primary care. We can now help medical doctors save real time, reduce stress, and focus on what matters the most: patients. AI is also set to help compensate the shortfall of healthcare workers in Europe.” – Dr Sexias

Already used by 119,000 physicians, the cheerful virtual assistant totalled an average of 414 words after its first 24 hours of availability. So far, the recorded top use cases have been medical knowledge retrieval, questions regarding medical studies, ‘utilitarian questions’, inquiries about the app itself and finally, queries about the reliability of the service.

So, why not just use ChatGPT…?

Despite the prevalence of ChatGPT, and the fact it was trained with a significant body of medical knowledge, it’s not yet ready for primetime when it comes to diagnosis and decision-making. Tonic App has amassed clinical content and previously acquired data to fuel the Dr Tonic; given that it has been created by doctors and medical workers (and attains to the highest standards of care), it can safely be used for clinical decision making. What’s more, further use by GPs and doctors will make it even more viable as a service!

Of course, the ethics of artificial intelligence making decisions is still being ironed out; in terms of data privacy and third party personal data, Dr Tonic falls short. Simply, it’s not allowed to know which patient its treating, and GDPR compliance must, thankfully be adhered to. That said, we do stand on a precipice – in the future, it’s likely this will all seem like second nature.

You might not be meeting a robot doctor any time, but expect an altogether streamlined experience thanks to the newest doc on the block, Dr Tonic.

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Find. out more about Dr Tonic at www.tonicapp.io. Whilst it’s not currently in use in the UK, medical workers across France, Italy, Spain and Portugal have already taken the plunge.

Source: First ChatGPT for doctors in Europe.

Want to read more on how AI is changing the face of healthcare technology? Click here! OpenAI Changes Healthcare For The Better.

The post Dr Tonic Assistant For Doctors Rolls Out in Europe first appeared on Tech Insight.