I have a (well managed) chronic illness. I have to go to lots of doctors at different clinics. All of them are in the habit of just collecting all the information.
For example, as a patient, there’s no benefit to me whatsoever of the doctor being aware of the day and month of my birth. That’s just the start though, they have my medical concession id number, addresses, et cetera.
If you express any reluctance at all, you’re made to feel like a pariah. Like a COVID denier or something. For example, there was one clinic I want sure I would continue with, so when I was asked to fill out my details I asked whether it was really necessary given that I might not come on board as a patient, the receptionist and doctor just couldn’t understand why I might be reluctant.
Last time I saw my GP he asked whether he could record our conversation… “it’s some AI thing we’re trialling”. OMFG. Why on earth would I want that? Why would anyone want that? I want my GP who is an actual person to listen to my circumstances and determine the best course of action.
Day and Month of Birth is a basic check to see if you are who you say you are, if you are refusing to give even basic details like that I can see why the medical staff who deal with you would give you confused/annoyed expressions
To be clear, I don’t refuse to provide my Day and Month of Birth, simply because I don’t want to be some kind of privacy pariah.
That said, while it may have been a reasonable point of ID in the 90s, I don’t believe that remains the case in 2024.
The basic concept of Australian Privacy Legislation is that organisations ought to collect only that information which they require, and they should disclose the reason why they are collecting that data.
If the only reason to collect ones Day and Month of birth is so I can repeat it back and confirm it later then that seems very pointless to me. There are other details which they do require which can be used to confirm my identity.
That said, while it may have been a reasonable point of ID in the 90s, I don’t believe that remains the case in 2024.
It’s useful for quickly disambiguating between multiple people with the same name though - the odds that two people with the same name and date of birth are using the same provider on the same day are low enough to consider it useful.
I’m certain that fewer than 0.1% of patients at a small medical clinic would share the same first and last names. In those cases, you could differentiate by address and age if necessary.
I think you underestimate how common the most common first and last names are. In an even small city you are likely to see repeats of the most common names.
Yes, uniquely identifying the patient is important, especially for pharmacies where people with the same name might receive different doses of the same drug or receive similar sounding drugs that the patient might not catch.
What would you suggest? It needs to be a piece of information that is probably unique when paired with name at least as far as the local area, that absolutely everyone has, that the pharmacy and doctor both have and is unlikely to change (to avoid issues where records in one place are updated before the other).
A potential fantastic use of AI is to scan a person’s medical records against the vast medical knowledge humans have gathered over the past century or so to help doctors identify problems quicker and with more accuracy.
While the general purpose AI’s we use today can’t be trusted to diagnose anything (but I’d argue they can assist a competent doctor) a future specific purpose AI that’s tailored to that task could revolutionize diagnosis. And with the rate AI is going (even if people like Sam Altman are stretching truths) it’s not a too distant future.
Sorry, maybe I should clarify that to “informed consent” - if someone shoves an eighty page ToS in front of you to use the services of their private hospital you may be giving consent technically but it’s not informed consent.
That’s nice and all, but in the meantime, 96 of the hospital’s “valued partners” are listening in to figure out the best thing to advertise to you next.
This.
I have a (well managed) chronic illness. I have to go to lots of doctors at different clinics. All of them are in the habit of just collecting all the information.
For example, as a patient, there’s no benefit to me whatsoever of the doctor being aware of the day and month of my birth. That’s just the start though, they have my medical concession id number, addresses, et cetera.
If you express any reluctance at all, you’re made to feel like a pariah. Like a COVID denier or something. For example, there was one clinic I want sure I would continue with, so when I was asked to fill out my details I asked whether it was really necessary given that I might not come on board as a patient, the receptionist and doctor just couldn’t understand why I might be reluctant.
Last time I saw my GP he asked whether he could record our conversation… “it’s some AI thing we’re trialling”. OMFG. Why on earth would I want that? Why would anyone want that? I want my GP who is an actual person to listen to my circumstances and determine the best course of action.
Day and Month of Birth is a basic check to see if you are who you say you are, if you are refusing to give even basic details like that I can see why the medical staff who deal with you would give you confused/annoyed expressions
To be clear, I don’t refuse to provide my Day and Month of Birth, simply because I don’t want to be some kind of privacy pariah.
That said, while it may have been a reasonable point of ID in the 90s, I don’t believe that remains the case in 2024.
The basic concept of Australian Privacy Legislation is that organisations ought to collect only that information which they require, and they should disclose the reason why they are collecting that data.
If the only reason to collect ones Day and Month of birth is so I can repeat it back and confirm it later then that seems very pointless to me. There are other details which they do require which can be used to confirm my identity.
It’s useful for quickly disambiguating between multiple people with the same name though - the odds that two people with the same name and date of birth are using the same provider on the same day are low enough to consider it useful.
I’m certain that fewer than 0.1% of patients at a small medical clinic would share the same first and last names. In those cases, you could differentiate by address and age if necessary.
I think you underestimate how common the most common first and last names are. In an even small city you are likely to see repeats of the most common names.
Does that really matter?
Differentiate some other way.
Yes, uniquely identifying the patient is important, especially for pharmacies where people with the same name might receive different doses of the same drug or receive similar sounding drugs that the patient might not catch.
What would you suggest? It needs to be a piece of information that is probably unique when paired with name at least as far as the local area, that absolutely everyone has, that the pharmacy and doctor both have and is unlikely to change (to avoid issues where records in one place are updated before the other).
Worth mentioning but health screening is a great use of AI.
I think this statement is far too broad.
It might be good to have AI review some imaging someone has had done to examine some particular ailment.
It’s definitely not good to have a LLM review conversations with my GP and send me targeted marketing for “potential” ailments.
It is, it was a bit terse, you’re right.
A potential fantastic use of AI is to scan a person’s medical records against the vast medical knowledge humans have gathered over the past century or so to help doctors identify problems quicker and with more accuracy.
While the general purpose AI’s we use today can’t be trusted to diagnose anything (but I’d argue they can assist a competent doctor) a future specific purpose AI that’s tailored to that task could revolutionize diagnosis. And with the rate AI is going (even if people like Sam Altman are stretching truths) it’s not a too distant future.
Also worth mentioning.
Ask for fucking consent.
AI model training is off the fucking rails right now and we really need laws and lawsuits to punish assholes.
they did, they literally asked them to fill out forms.
Sorry, maybe I should clarify that to “informed consent” - if someone shoves an eighty page ToS in front of you to use the services of their private hospital you may be giving consent technically but it’s not informed consent.
The AI thing is probably for the doctor to have a summary at the end, notes without needing to type them.
That’s nice and all, but in the meantime, 96 of the hospital’s “valued partners” are listening in to figure out the best thing to advertise to you next.