Doctors still serve a vital role in our healthcare system, but more basic visits and diagnoses are increasingly able to be carried out by individuals without full medical training using technology to assist their diagnoses.
In one study, IBM’s Watson made the same recommendation as human doctors in 99% of cases and actually diagnosed illnesses missed by human doctors in 30% of them. Similar technology could help monitor and manage chronic conditions such as obesity and diabetes while still referring more complex health issues to more experienced doctors.
We should enable a new class of Primary Care Specialists or Nurse Practitioners to provide health care to patients in rural and indigent areas in order to increase access to quality healthcare and preventative/maintenance medicine at a lower cost.
Problems to be Solved
- checkThere are a limited number of doctors to see a large number of patients.
- checkIllness monitoring and preventative care are expensive despite being rote.
- checkThere are a large number of people interested in being healthcare providers without the interest or capability of going through the entire medical school process.
- We have a massive doctor shortage in this country and too many Americans receive inadequate care. We need to make it possible for all Americans to have access to quality care, which includes broadening the type of professionals who can provide care in rural and underserved environments.
Goals
- checkIncrease access to preventative care and health monitoring services
- checkUse technology to assist in the more rote aspects of healthcare
- checkIncrease the viable career options within the primary care field
As President I will...
- Invest in innovative technologies related to healthcare diagnosis and maintenance.
- Work with licensing agencies to create new levels of medical licensure for Primary Care Specialists - technology-enabled individuals with less training than doctors to help with routine health issues while knowing when to refer a case to a Doctor of Medicine.