Giving blood

HS Velos (D-16) Museum Ship on Palio Limani, Thessaloniki

At the hospital, preparing to give blood to a relative. They say that since hospitals, as we know them, were formed in the industrial era, they resemble factories—humans as machines. We need to repair a part each time, and if there are many concurrent issues, a flow between departments and specialized personnel must be followed. This system has served and continues to serve us well, but…

I’m wondering if, now that the paradigm has changed, healthcare could be perceived to simulate and better align with the AI era. And if this is the case, how could we imagine the patient? She is more than a flow of data streams that the model tries to decipher, classify, and use to predict future signs, and values, or detect anomalies. And doctors are more than data analysts with domain expertise. They know what data to look at; they can extract features—meaning data that have some predictive value and are somehow of greater importance—and with these features, they assist the patient and propose a therapy or course of action.

But let’s remind ourselves of the assistive nature of this process and refrain from handing agency away.

#notes

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