遇到棘手的醫學問題？你的醫生可能使用人工智能解决 ( (2/2)

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

Have a Thorny Medical Question? Your Doctor May Be Using A.I. for That (2/2)

OpenEvidence, a fast-growing start-up, is using artificial intelligence to help doctors find answers to clinical questions for diagnosis and treatment.

The NYT - By Steve Lohr - Steve Lohr has reported on the way technology is changing the work force for more than a decade.

June 8, 2026

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Dr. Topol is a co-author of a recent paper, “The Illusion of Readiness in Health A.I.,” which found “significant competency gaps” in the capability of big A.I. systems when applied to health care.

The evaluations so far have largely focused on the performance of the so-called large language models of big tech companies like OpenAI and Google, which are trained on data across the open internet.

OpenEvidence, founded in 2022, took a more focused approach. It bet that smaller A.I. software models trained on highly specialized data could outperform the giant models in a specific, information-rich field like medicine. The start-up trained its software initially on the publicly available medical data from sources like the government’s National Library of Medicine.

Then the company struck content licensing deals with The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association and other publishers of peer-reviewed medical literature.

Studies of OpenEvidence, including one by researchers at the Mayo Clinic, have found that while the app is not flawless, its answers are generally accurate and evidence based.

OpenEvidence is available to any government-verified physician in America as a free, downloadable app.

“We treated physicians like consumers,” Mr. Nadler said. Users are presented ads, many of them from drug companies, during the five seconds or so they wait for the A.I. to reply. Physicians are served ads on only 5 percent of their questions, the company said.

Sidestepping the traditional gatekeepers of hospital technology departments has raised some issues. OpenEvidence has relied on the workplace behavior known as “shadow A.I.,” workers using such tools without the knowledge or oversight of their employers.

Some health systems are now focusing on bringing OpenEvidence into the institutional fold. Mount Sinai announced in March that it would provide a link to OpenEvidence directly from a patient’s electronic health record.

But the agreement does not give the start-up access to the medical center’s patient data. That integration could come later, Dr. Gavin said, but only after rigorous testing and controls.

Protecting patient privacy and safety will be “paramount,” he said, adding that “we’re not going to just throw a patient’s data over the wall to a private company.”

Doctors in smaller practices across the country, especially in rural areas, say the technology has won them over.

In Corinth, Miss., Dr. Ben Long counts himself as an A.I. skeptic. But he was reassured that OpenEvidence generates answers based on only high-quality, peer-reviewed information.

At first, Dr. Long used it mainly as a reference tool, asking factual questions. But now, he regards the app more as “a consultant, a thought partner” with which he has a dialogue, he said.

“A.I. forces you to think more deeply about your own thinking, challenging your assumptions and why you might be wrong,” Dr. Long said.

A.I. can also let doctors tap expertise that would normally be the realm of specialists.

Dr. Barbara Creighton often diagnoses and treats complex cases at a community hospital in Fairbanks, Alaska. They can involve multiple conditions and failing organs. At a large medical center, a team of specialists might be consulted — an infectious disease expert, a pulmonologist and a gastroenterologist, for example.

Dr. Creighton’s small hospital is not so richly staffed. It does have an arrangement with a big medical center to pay for specialist consulting sessions. She now relies increasingly on OpenEvidence to answer many questions, saving her time and her hospital money.

“It’s like having a bunch of specialists in your pocket,” Dr. Creighton said.

At Mount Sinai, Dr. Gavin said he viewed A.I. technology as a powerful tool to help realize the promise of precision medicine with treatments tailored to individuals.

Progress will require a “patchwork of solutions” from hospitals, medical schools and private companies, he said. Whether OpenEvidence thrives and plays a role in that long-term future remains to be seen.

“But it represents a step in that direction,” Dr. Gavin said.

Translation

 遇到棘手的醫學問題？你的醫生可能使用人工智能解决 ( (2/2)

OpenEvidence 是一家快速發展的新創公司，它正利用人工智能幫助醫生找到臨床診斷和治療問題的答案

（繼續）

Topol博士是近期一篇論文《醫療人工智能的就緒假象》的合著者，該論文發現，各大型人工智能系統在應用於醫療保健時，其能力存在「顯著的差距」。

迄今為止，評估主要集中在 OpenAI 和谷歌等大型科技公司所謂的大型語言模型的性能上，這些模型是基於開放互聯網上的數據進行訓練的。

成立於 2022 年的 OpenEvidence 採取了更專注的方法。它押注於規模較小的人工智能系統軟件模型，基於其高度專業化的資料訓練，在特定且資訊豐富的領域例如醫學等，其效能可能優於大型模型。這家新創公司最初使用來自美國國家醫學圖書館等機構的公開醫療數據來訓練其軟件。

隨後，該公司與《新英格蘭醫學雜誌》、《美國醫學會雜誌》以及其他同行評審醫學文獻出版商達成了內容授權協議。

包括Mayo診所研究人員在內的多項針對 OpenEvidence 的研究發現，儘管該應用程式並非完美無缺，但其答案通常準確且基於證據。

OpenEvidence 是一款免費下載的應用程式，任何經美國政府認證的醫生均可使用。

Nadler先生說: 「我們對待醫生像對待消費者一樣」。在用戶等待人工智能回覆的大約五秒時間內，系統會向他們顯示廣告，其中許多來自製藥公司。該公司表示，醫生在回答問題時，只有 5% 的發問會遇到廣告。

繞過醫院技術部門的傳統把關人也引發了一些問題。 OpenEvidence 一直以來都依賴一種被稱為「影子人工智能」的職場行為，即員工在雇主不知情或缺乏監督的情況下使用此類工具。

一些醫療系統目前正致力於將 OpenEvidence 納入其係統。西奈山醫院於今年三月宣佈，將直接在患者的電子健康記錄中提供 OpenEvidence 的連結。

但該協議並未賦予這家新創公司存取醫療中心患者資料的權限。Gavin醫師表示，這種整合可能會在之後進行，但前提是必須經過嚴格的測試和控制。

他強調，保護患者隱私和安全 '至關重要'，並補充說：“我們不會輕易將患者數據拱手讓給一家私人公司。”

全國各地小型診所的醫生，尤其是在農村地區的醫生，表示這項技術已經贏得了他們的認可。

在密西西比州Corinth市，Ben Long醫生自認是對人工智能持懷疑態度。但他感到安心的是，OpenEvidence 產生的答案只基於高品質的同儕審查資料。

起初，Long醫師主要將其用作參考工具，提出一些事實性問題。但現在，他更傾向於將這款應用程式視為“顧問，思想夥伴”，並與之進行對話。

Long醫生說： “人工智能迫使你更深入地思考自己的思維方式，挑戰你的假設以及你可能犯錯的原因。”

人工智能還可以讓醫生利用通常只有專科醫生才能提供的專業知識。

Barbara Creighton醫生經常在阿拉斯加Fairbanks的社區醫院診斷和治療複雜的病例。這些病例可能涉及多種疾病和器官衰竭。在大型醫療中心，醫生可能會諮詢一個專家團隊 - 例如，傳染病專家、肺科醫生和腸胃科醫生。

Creighton醫生所在的小型醫院人員配備並不充足。它與一家大型醫療中心達成協議，支付專家諮詢費用。她現在越來越依賴 OpenEvidence 來解答許多問題，這不僅節省了她的時間，也為醫院節省了金錢。

Creighton醫生說: 「這就像有一群專家在自己的口袋裡一樣」。

西奈山醫院的Gavin醫生表示，他認為人工智能技術是實現精準醫療願景的強大工具，能夠為患者量身定制治療方案。

他指出，要取得進展，需要醫院、醫學院和私人企業共同努力，「拼湊多種解決方案」。 OpenEvidence 能否蓬勃發展，並在未來的長遠發展中發揮作用，還有待觀察。

Gavin醫生說: 「但這已代表朝著那方向邁出第一步」。

              So, OpenEvidence has trained its software using publicly available medical data like the government’s National Library of Medicine etc. Currently, this application is available free to any government-verified physician in America, and many doctors in the US are using it. Apparently, it has a very good potential in helping doctors to perform their work and I am wondering when will it be made available to other countries.