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Psychologist Rebeca Cardoso Tenente Molina, aged 32, died after spending around 5 days waiting to be transferred to another hospital
A fallible and inflexible hospital system refused to give in even when test data showed that the patient’s condition was worsening. “We realized that doctors have lost autonomy in deciding whether a patient is very seriously ill.”
As Artificial Intelligence enters hospital systems around the world, the case of a Brazilian psychologist makes it clear that this technology does not need to diagnose patients to determine whether they live or die.
Rebeca Cardoso Lieutenant Molinaaged 32, died after a public hospital’s AI system, used to assign hospital beds, had forced to wait five days by a transfer to an intensive care unit.
In an interview with , family members of the young psychologist explained that the AI system, called “Core”, delayed access to care that she needed.
Before he died, Molina was admitted to a hospital in the municipality of São João Nepomuceno, where he was awaiting medical treatment for gallstones.
As your health status deteriorated rapidlyMolina waited for it to become availablel an ICU bed in another hospitalin Oliveira, approximately 300 kilometers away.
Although the family has advanced with legal action against the hospital system to obtain the transfer, the process was significantly delayed. The family now believes that This five-day wait was fatalsays Globo.
According to Molina’s sister and family lawyer, Sâmela Furtadothe AI hospital management system gave the patient a much lower “score” to what his clinical condition justified.
This automatic classificationcarried out by the State Center for Regulatory Operations of Minas Gerais (Core-MG) using artificial intelligence tools, will have played a decisive role in the delay transfer to an ICU bed.
“What we realized was that doctors lost autonomy to decide whether a patient is very seriously ill“, Furtado told Globo. “Who has to accept if a patient is in serious condition? the doctor is no longer thereliving that reality with the patient, is the Core.”
In the interview, Furtado describes a fallible and inflexible system, who refused to give in even when the exam data showed that her sister’s condition was getting worse.
“She should have had a score of 10and the system only classified it as 6.8”. Therefore, couldn’t progress through the systembecause a patient with 8, a patient with 6.9, it was ahead of him. And the system did not accept increasing the degree of severity, despite the tests that were constantly feeding it with data”, explained Furtado”.
“My sister, other people, It’s not just numbersthey are not just protocols, they are not just a citizen card launched into the system”, said Molina’s sister. “They have families, they had dreamsthey had their whole lives ahead of them.”
In a statement released after the launch of the AI system, on May 19, the Undersecretary of Health of Minas Gerais, Poliana Cardoso Lopesexplained that “Core provides an updated bed map three times a day”.
“Thereforeit will be possible to have much more control over the process and generate better data on clinical status and the needs of each person waiting for a bed”, reads the statement.
In reaction to Molina’s death, the State Department of Health told Globo that transfers are determined based on availability of beds compatible with the patient’s clinical needsand that “Core-MG did not substantially change the protocol for transferring patients to other units”.
