DIGITAL GODS: THE MAKING OF A

MEDICAL FACT FOR RURAL Payal Arora

DIAGNOSTIC SOFTWARE Presented By: Anirban Das
Key Idea
֍ RIGHTCHOICE is a novel medical diagnostic software suite (expert system) from USA, meant to provide accurate, customized
and rapid diagnosis, portable & accessible medical information and informed public healthcare and planning & implementation. With
individual’s information collected in a database in a format of (Demographics, Disease history, Child-bearing, Surgical Procedures,
Immunization, Habits) and performing software mediated guided interview process, it claims to provide treatment recommendation
for approved diseases that a minimally trained health worker may utilize. Additionally it may help prevention & education, disease
monitoring services, supervision of health workers and treatment guide.
֍ India’s rural healthcare sector is significantly handicapped because of shortage of doctors particularly in the rural area, and poor
often suffer from misdiagnosis. The state govts and international orgs are therefore interested to evaluate RIGHTCHOICE .
֍Armed with a Pilot study on Almora author red-flags such initiative and suggested possible repercussions on legal & political level.
Local customization causes misclassification of user info (data mgmt. Problem), politics of referral to pharma and diagnostic tests in
exchange of commission, alternative approaches to treatments, user behavioural problems, ability to interpret symptomatic data
confidently by the health worker, socio-legal issues of a misdiagnosis are key bottlenecks. Therefore author suggests that the “digital
doctors will have to do better than that”.
Key Quote
“Even if we are to go beyond the politics of referrals and other systems at work, the notion that there is one way of interpreting
“symptomatic” data to confidently lead to a diagnosis is, as we have seen, problematic. Even if this were to be compounded by visual
data, this would require a doctor to make the final decision.” – Author
Key Issue / Question
֍ Author could additionally question “Given the limitations, what could have made this system useful in Indian Context?”.
֍ A more detailed technical description of the system could have been provided. Also, author did not consider the fact that, there could
be other far remote places than Almora where the survey could have taken place.
֍ There is no attempt to theorize or to provide the theoretical lens on the learning outcome.