T H E W O R L D I S C H A N G I N G
For these past few months, the world is changing and evolving even more rapidly than ever before. In the midst of a pandemic, Philip, with his profession as a doctor, was also required to visit the Covid patients in March. “All doctors have to take alternate turns in helping these patients,” he professes, “You can say that this isn’t related to research, nor does it have any academic relevance. But I believe that we are doctors first and foremost, and it is our utmost priority to aid patients. Hence, I didn’t return home for around 2 months.”
Troubled with an overwhelming demand of sufficient medical professional care, it is tempting to look at AI (Artificial Intelligence) as a solution. Yet, Philip questions the suitability of having a robot to treat patients with infectious diseases. “If the patient has to undergo a blood test, a shot or even just a simple checkup in regards to their breathing, you need to have a helping hand.” He reasons, but while also acknowledging that there is an undeniable increased assistance by technology.
Recently, there is an invented AI called Robot Doctor, in which you can roughly get an accurate diagnosis if you Google your symptoms. “Doctors have actually used this method due to its vast bank of data that allows smooth processing of diagnosis,” Philip provides, “For example, for rare diseases in which we are unable to find or identify in patients, we will go to the database. The entirety of Hong Kong has a population of 7.1 million. We will sort out every single record, select some diseases and check with the patients’ progress to investigate the curing of this sickness.”
In addition, technology can also be used in X-rays. “With the naked eye, you will need 20 to 30 years of intensive training and experience because X-rays are hard to analyze and decipher properly.” Philip states, “But we can now train the computer to read the X-rays by pinpointing the abnormalities and circling them. Then, we will take another normal X-ray and give it to the robot too.” And after thousands and millions of times in training the robots, their accuracy can strikingly match with doctors who hold 20 to 30 years of experience. This suggests the necessity of having doctors to read X-rays, simply because we can rely on AI to help us decode and give us a brief direction to which area the patient needs to be treated.
“But in the end, medicine is a type of art.” As Philip describes, “You cannot always rely on a formula, it requires balance and sometimes, humanity. Hence, I am confident that my job would not be replaced by technology. But in 2020, with the world speedily moving forward, there is already a lot of technological assistance.”
O N E S T E P A H E A D
One may doubt their ability in becoming professional doctors simply because they believe that they do not have the right skills or attitude to dutifully serve patients. While this is understandable, this feeling of insecurity can easily be wavered if you start gaining experience and knowledge in your early years.
Philip, as a young child, was in the Cadet Force, to which the emergency first aid skills he picked up on proved to be useful for him. “When learning how to save people in an emergency situation, your mindset begins to develop clinically,” He reveals, “In my opinion, when conducting first aid, you have to first be fast and precise in identifying the most common problems, such as any broken bones or any symptoms of heatstroke. Then, you should have knowledge in certain problems that may not be common but fatal, allergy reactions is another example. This is a doctor’s basic foundation. You have to know the most common things but you cannot look past any fatal diseases.”
We, in our daily lives, normally categorize the medical staff as ‘doctors’ or ‘nurses’ without actually understanding their line of work. ‘Doctors’ are not just ‘doctors’, they in reality have various specialties or duties, with some being in charge of the frontline and others responsible for examinations. “Everyone has different duties,” Philip expresses, “But we all have the common goal of saving and helping as many patients as possible. It also really depends on your personality to see which type of duty as a doctor best fits you. If you like excitement or adrenaline, you may be capable as a frontline medical doctor. If you can’t handle such franticness and prefer communication with patients, however, you should consider other lines of work.”
While broaching on this topic, it is notable to mention that attitudes and mentalities play a significant role in your occupation. In regards to being a surgeon, although it is your duty to save patients’ lives, it is not guaranteed that you can save every single one of them on a surgical table. Knowing that you have indirectly caused a patient’s death can be detrimental to one’s mind as you slowly get eaten up by guilt. “I will not grow numb, but my feelings to this situation are less intense than before,” Philip admits, “I will tell myself that the most important thing of all is that I can meet the standards. I will ensure that I will not be doing things out of negligence, and as long as I do my best and provide the patient with their well-deserved healthcare, my hard work can make a difference to their suffering. I can’t extend their lifespan but I can alleviate their pain, whether it be spiritually or psychologically or physically. As long as I have given my patient a fighting chance, I wouldn’t pressurize myself. It’s okay to make mistakes.” In the end, doctors are not Gods, they just give patients options that they deserve to have in hopes of bettering their health.
Because Philip has submerged himself into divergent aspects of medicine, one being of physiology and the latter being surgery, he realizes that much like the difference between these name terms, the treatments, mentality and attitude for both specialities have no similarity or whatsoever. “In a very biased perspective, surgeons treat diseases with the mentality of its ressurrectability. They have to utilize many techniques, master the way their hands move and consider various options that can decrease the complication rate.” As he proceeds, “ In terms of medicine however, we take more pride in our diagnosis. We emphasize more on the diagnosis and sometimes, the diseases may not be easily identified with just an X-ray or eliminated by a surgical procedure.”
For physiology, Philip reveals the need in conducting blood tests and the questioning of how the patient caught the disease and the availability of any solutions. The medicine prescribed to patients is rather molecular as science has to be taken into consideration. “For example,” Philip suggests, “In regards to
insufficiency in a certain type of protein or an auto-immune reaction, I need to ask myself which textbook medicine works the best. If none of the textbook medicine is applicable, I have to question the need in conducting a particular test or, even, devise a new medicine to help.”
While surgeons and physicians have contrasting lifestyles and mentalities, their respective work should be given proper respect and gratefulness. In addition, gender roles hold little to no influence in what people should do in terms of medicine or any other professions, what matters the most is your ultimate choice.
But before you finalize any sorts of decisions, you are advised to think in all possible aspects, as it is imperative that you clearly understand every single direction and their individual circumstances if you happen to walk that path. It is only when you motivate yourself into broadening your horizons and knowledge could you be successful.
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