Article Excerpt: On a snow-covered Dartmouth College campus, a neuroscientist leaned in toward a cranky patient describing memory loss. The man was frustrated his wife had pushed for a visit to the doctor because he was misplacing keys and blanking on names.
He was abrasive, distrustful of medicine. And yet, he wasn’t human at all.
The man speaking with Thomas Thesen, associate professor of medical education at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, was an artificial intelligence patient actor that has helped train more than 10,000 medical students globally in bedside manner and interpersonal skills.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Thesen sympathized with the patient into a microphone. “That must be difficult.”
The tool is just one instance of how Dartmouth is prioritizing the exploration of AI at a moment when its implementation is accelerating at breakneck speed and concurrently stirring unease…
AI’s entry in mental health care is a thorny subject. But viewing it as unethical or risky misses the larger reality — one that two Dartmouth researchers argue is more urgent. It’s already being widely used.
The task at hand is to make sure going forward, it’s developed, tested and deployed safely.
That’s the viewpoint of Nicholas Jacobson, associate professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry, and Lisa Marsch, founding director of the Dartmouth Center for Technology and Behavioral Health. They’re at the forefront of the college’s research on AI use to improve access to mental health and addiction care.
Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/5nf94ajm
Article Source: Union Leader. Also covered in MassLive News.