- There were suggestions for diagnoses and treatments.
And sometimes it could be completely crazy and that it did not agree at all with my assessment, said a specialist in general medicine at one of the health centers where Vårdexpressen was pilot tested in the autumn of 2019.
The doctor testified that she eventually ignored the tool's suggestions for diagnoses and made her own assessment.
But she feared that younger and less experienced doctors trusted the tool, which was alleged to contain artificial intelligence.
- I see an enormous risk that it will be wrong.
If they trust the system too much and do not have that experience and trust themselves, the doctor in Malmö District Court said.
Photo: Linda Fridh / SVT
Called the "Care Snail"
At the current health center, the pilot trial was terminated prematurely.
- We made massive criticism of our operations manager, the doctor said and continued:
- As it was presented, this would revolutionize everything and it would be the best tool.
It would be so good for the patients, it would be so good for the staff and above all it would save the doctors an enormous amount of work.
None of these things were fulfilled.
I renamed the system "Care Snail" because it took such a terrible time.
"Thousands of diagnoses"
When District Attorney Thomas Forsberg questioned Damon Tojjar about how many diagnoses Läkarexpressen, later called Vårdexpressen, could handle, he replied the following:
- All diagnoses can be entered in Läkarexpressen.
It's about thousands.
The prosecutor also asked questions about how the care tool used AI, artificial intelligence.
Tojjar answered the question evasively, but at the same time firmly emphasized that the tool was an AI system.
"It was patient dangerous"
The prosecutor also called Kristina Sundquist, professor of general medicine, to testify at the trial.
- Today there is no working tool anywhere in the world where you can make diagnoses, said Professor Sundquist, also operations manager at the Center for Primary Care Research in Malmö, and continued:
- I became very, very skeptical when I first heard that you would have a diagnostic tool in primary care.
Primary care is not a diagnosis, it is all diagnoses, all symptoms, all signs of illness.
I see this as an impossible task at present and definitely nothing for a small company.
- I judged that it was patient dangerous, said Kristina Sundquist.
Rejects the criticism
Damon Tojjar repeatedly claimed in court that the Health Express did not pose a danger to patients' safety.
- There is no diagnosis that can risk misleading the care staff, said Damon Tojjar, in questioning with his defender Lars Kruse.
- Do you think that this tool in any way risks patient safety?
asked lawyer Kruse.
- No.
All decisions are made by licensed healthcare staff, said Vårdinnovations' former CEO Damon Tojjar.
Photo: Linda Fridh / SVT