There are any number of reasons why people don’t get medical care or don’t follow up on a referral to a specialist. They might not think they have a serious problem. They might lack time off work, reliable transportation, or health insurance. And those are problems AI alone can’t solve.
Source: Mullin, E. (2018). The first AI approved to diagnose disease is tackling blindness in rural areas.
There’s a good point to be made here; an algorithm may be 100% accurate in diagnosing a condition but the system can still fail for many reasons, one of which may be the all too human characteristic of ignoring medical advice. Of course, there are many good reasons for why we may not be able to follow the advice, which is mentioned in the article. However, the point is that, even if an algorithm gets it absolutely right, it may still not be the solution to the problem.
Note: I mentioned this story a few posts ago. It’s going to be interesting to follow it and see how the system fares in the uncertainty of real-world situations.