AI cannot replace doctors, says IMA chief

New Delhi: Artificial intelligence cannot replace doctors though this technology can assist medical practitioners, IMA chief Dr R V Asokan has said.

During an interaction with PTI editors, he said the medical profession has always been the first to embrace technology but it cannot supersede the connection between a patient and a doctor.

“Nobody can replace a doctor. As long as the patient is vulnerable and is in a situation where he is so helpless that no science can treat him, only that touch, that hope, that eye contact, that assurance of a doctor can work,” he said.

Asokan asserted that newer technologies like artificial intelligence, telemedicine and robotic surgery will greatly enhance the medical field but “I think the doctor will always be there”.

“We believe that the art of medicine is bigger than the science of medicine,” he said.

Commenting on the violent attack on doctors and the need for a centralised law, he said unfortunately such instances of doctors are becoming a part of the culture. “It has become part of the culture. It is because of the high expectations and the unmet needs... There is a law protecting the airline staff. We are asking the government that if the airline staff are so special for the country, then please give us some protection also,” he said.

Asokan further said around 23 states have passed laws to deal with violence against doctors but these, he said, were ineffective on the ground.

He went on to say that amendments to the Epidemic Diseases Act, were useful.

“You wanted the doctors to be protected during the corona pandemic and not on ordinary times, that also looks funny,” he said.

Over punishment of doctors for medical negligence, the IMA chief said that no doctor is criminally culpable. “We may be answerable on the law of torts or the civil law. A crime is defined as having an intent. If there is no intent then there is no crime. If it’s a murder, then its a different thing. Otherwise during the process of treatment if there is a death there is no criminal intention. You cannot accuse the doctor of a criminal intention. Something might have gone wrong. Civil law is adequate to handle that situation,” he said.