this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2026
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162
Dr. Oz pushes AI avatars as a fix for rural health care. Not so fast, critics say (text.npr.org)
submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by Beep@lemmus.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Dr. Mehmet Oz is pitching a controversial fix for America's rural health care crisis: artificial intelligence.

"There's no question about it — whether you want it or not — the best way to help some of these communities is gonna be AI-based avatars," Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said recently at an event focused on addiction and mental health hosted by Action for Progress, a coalition aimed at improving behavioral health care. He said AI could multiply the reach of doctors fivefold — or more — without burning them out.

The AI proposal is part of the Trump administration's $50 billion plan to modernize health care in rural communities. That includes deploying tools such as digital avatars to conduct basic medical interviews, robotic systems for remote diagnostics, and drones to deliver medication where pharmacies don't exist.

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[–] SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 3 days ago

I'll give AI this much credit. I have a rare disease that took me nearly two decades to get diagnosed. I saw over 20 doctors during that time, most of which had no idea while the rest misdiagnosed me.

I had a little intro script I wrote that explained my symptoms to keep it consistent. My roommate is a big AI proponent while I'm AI critical. At his suggestion, I signed up for a free trial for his favorite and gave it my little intro script. It processed for a few seconds, then spit out the correct diagnosis and subtype, then started asking if I had symptoms for a related comorbidity, which I do. That would have saved me 22 years of pain and confusion. WTF.

I've had a related chronic injury for this entire time that even my condition-aware doctors have been baffled by. I explained it in detail and AI barfed out its best guess. I worked with it until I had a possible rehab program, which is actually working.

So now I'm AI ambivalent. I strongly believe humans are at best passable doctors, but that the breadth of information for even one discipline is already more than most humans can properly understand and utilize. That's how you end up with orthopedists that just specialize in one joint or dermatologists who concentrate on just a few conditions - there's just too much knowledge for one person to handle all of it and that knowledge continues to grow. As medical science becomes even more advanced, I think practitioners will have to lean on technology in some form as the practice of medicine further outstrips human capabilities.