Opioid addiction is America's 50-state epidemic. It courses along Interstate highways in the form of cheap smuggled heroin, and flows out of "pill mill" clinics where pain medicine is handed out like candy. It has ripped through New England towns, where people overdose in the aisles of dollar stores, and it has ravaged coal country, where addicts speed-dial the sole doctor in town licensed to prescribe a medication.
Public health officials have called the current opioid epidemic the worst drug crisis in American history, killing more than 33,000 people in 2015. Overdose deaths were nearly equal to the number of deaths from car crashes. In 2015, for the first time, deaths from heroin alone surpassed gun homicides.
More ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/us/opioid-crisis-epidemic.html?
Friday, January 6, 2017
NHS trials artificial intelligence app as alternative to 111 helpline
NHS patients will be assessed by robots under a controversial 111 scheme to use "artificial intelligence" to ease pressures on Accident & Emergency units.
More than one million people will be given access to a free app which means they can consult with a "chatbot" instead of a human being.
Hospitals across the country are struggling to cope with unprecedented demand, which has left thousands of casualty patients waiting on trolleys.
In the last week, growing numbers of hospitals and ambulance services have declared critical incidents - even though most operations have been stopped for the last month.
The new measure is part of a national drive by health officials to "digitise" the health service, while speeding up help for minor complaints to reduce strain on services.
The company behind the scheme said it would save the health service "substantial" money and time.
But leading doctors and patients' groups last night expressed fear that the experiment, due to start later this month, is too risky. They raised fears that serious conditions could be missed - or casualty units end up swamped - by too great a reliance on automated systems.
More ...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/01/05/nhs-trials-artificial-intelligence-app-place-111-helpline/
More than one million people will be given access to a free app which means they can consult with a "chatbot" instead of a human being.
Hospitals across the country are struggling to cope with unprecedented demand, which has left thousands of casualty patients waiting on trolleys.
In the last week, growing numbers of hospitals and ambulance services have declared critical incidents - even though most operations have been stopped for the last month.
The new measure is part of a national drive by health officials to "digitise" the health service, while speeding up help for minor complaints to reduce strain on services.
The company behind the scheme said it would save the health service "substantial" money and time.
But leading doctors and patients' groups last night expressed fear that the experiment, due to start later this month, is too risky. They raised fears that serious conditions could be missed - or casualty units end up swamped - by too great a reliance on automated systems.
More ...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/01/05/nhs-trials-artificial-intelligence-app-place-111-helpline/
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