United States: Experts warn that the NHS’s emphasis on new technologies and artificial intelligence, instead of basic cancer treatment, is putting thousands of patients’ lives at risk.
Further Details
A paper in Lancet Oncology reveals that prominent doctors state the NHS’s cancer care lags behind other developed nations in survival rates.
NHS’s Poor Performance in Cancer Care
Since December 2015, the NHS has failed to meet its target of starting treatment for 85 percent of cancer patients within two months, according to The Guardian.
Research indicates that each four-week delay increases the risk by up to ten percent. Currently, only 62 percent of patients begin treatment within 62 days.
The published report underlines ten pressure points that would be contributing to entrenched cancer survival inequalities, along with diagnosis and treatment delays, as well as inefficient care.
Criticism of “Magic Bullet” Solutions
Severe criticism by experts says that cancer “novel solutions” like new diagnostic tests have been hyped as “magic bullets” for cancer treatment, which is rightfully wrong; however, “none address the fundamental issues of cancer as a systems problem.”
Moreover, as per the authors of the report, a “common fallacy” of NHS leaders is that they assume that new technologies can reverse inequalities.
However, in reality, such tools like AI could also create “additional barriers for those with poor digital or health literacy.”
The paper said conclusively, “We caution against technocentric approaches without robust evaluation from an equity perspective,” as the Guardian reported.
Additional Expert Opinions
Ajay Aggarwal, the paper’s lead author, emphasizes that while AI and new technologies may assist the workforce, they won’t directly improve patient outcomes. He points out that essential tasks like patient history, blood tests, surgery, and delivering bad news still require human involvement, as the Guardian reported.
He said, “The discussion around AI, tech, liquid biopsies, is slightly reductionist as a solution to cancer care,” and, “AI is a workflow tool, but actually, is it going to improve survival? Well, we’ve got limited evidence of that so far. Yes, it’s something that could potentially help the workforce, but you still need people to take a patient’s history, to take blood, to do surgery, to break bad news.”