Risk, uncertainty, and medical decision-making - Professor Chris Whitty

Something different for the podcast today: a live event. It’s the inaugural BMJ lecture, in partnership with the Academy of Medical Sciences and hosted at the historic Royal Academy of Arts. We want to talk about the big issues facing healthcare professionals around the world - and we’re starting with one of the biggest: how do we make decisions in the face of real risk and genuine uncertainty? Well, who better to talk through those big questions than the man who had to try to navigate those risks and uncertainties during the pandemic? Chris Whitty is England’s Chief Medical Officer and Chief Medical Adviser to the UK Government, advising on all aspects of healthcare. He is also a professor of public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where he was director of their Malaria Centre. In his lecture, Professor Whitty argues that medical training must better prepare doctors to manage risk, highlighting that "higher risk decisions, and accountability for these, have moved to later in training", causing a "substantial and sudden step up" in risk for new consultants. He acknowledges AI’s potential to speed up clinical diagnostics, but warns against public-facing AI tools that present diagnoses with false certainty while ignoring medical risk and uncertainty. Read the related Opinion article: "We must be more systematic about risk holding throughout doctors’ careers" This recording is available to view on YouTube.