When Rebecca Green arrived for her first appointment with a urologist, she was asked whether she consented to having the appointment transcribed by artificial intelligence (AI).
She said yes without hesitation.
"I don't want to be in her bad books or be that annoying patient who takes up more of her time," she said.
But that decision would cause her a lot of stress, with the AI scribe making up the serious but false claim that Ms Green was taking illegal drugs.
"I was gobsmacked and in tears … it made up that I take [psychedelic] mushrooms. I have never done mushrooms in my life,"
she said.
New research by a privacy watchdog has raised serious concerns about AI being used in medical settings due to its propensity to "hallucinate" false symptoms or conditions, and warned patients were at risk.
Ms Green only picked up the mistake after her kidney stone surgery in March, when she read the post-operative letter her specialist sent to her GP.
It stated Ms Green micro-dosed mushrooms and that could be the reason for prior bleeding around the kidneys.
"For this letter to say something that wasn't based in any evidence but could potentially have huge consequences for me … it was quite scary," she said.
"It felt very impersonal to me. I wasn't getting the level of care and familiarity from the doctor that I would be hoping for in such a vulnerable...
A McGuireWoods litigation team secured a significant victory for Cooke Inc. and several other entities when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of an alleged $2...