Dr. William B. Schwartz was generally credited as one of the earliest pioneers in AI in medicine. After he received his medical degree, he became active in both medical and computer science research.
In 1970, Schwartz published an influential paper in the New England Journal of Medicine that included the following paragraph:
"Rapid advances in the information sciences, coupled with the political commitment to broad extensions of health care, promise to bring about basic changes in the structure of medical practice. Computing science will probably exert its major effects by augmenting and, in some cases, largely replacing the intellectual functions of the physician. As the 'intellectual' use of the computer influences in a fundamental fashion the problems of both physician manpower and quality of medical care, it will also inevitably exact important social costs - psychological, organizational, legal, economical and technical."[Schwartz, 1970]
In the article, he stated that computer could be a useful clerk in filing medical records, but the real power was its ability to act as decision makers and perform intellectual functions.
His article created much enthusiasm among the AI community. They began to think that computer science would eventually revolutionise the practice of healthcare. As a result, many scientists were attracted to study the applications of computer science in medicine.
This page was designed by Kersten Fernandes (Student Number: 9511727), Matthew Bird (Student Number: 9812292), and Fedja Hadzic (Student Number: 9909256),
for the COMP3330: Machine Intelligence subject within the Bachelor of Computer Science degree at the
University of Newcastle.
