{"id":2623334,"date":"2026-07-03T13:03:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T17:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-ai-the-remedy-for-rural-healthcare\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T13:10:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T17:10:53","slug":"is-ai-the-remedy-for-rural-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-ai-the-remedy-for-rural-healthcare\/","title":{"rendered":"Is AI the Remedy for Rural Healthcare?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fis-ai-the-remedy-for-rural-healthcare%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2623334&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical care, highlighting how AI now surpasses traditional doctors in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/colonoscopy-unexpected-results-from-a-major-study-is-it-worth-doing\/\" title=\"Colonoscopy: Unexpected Results From a Major ..., Is It Worth Doing?\">diagnostic accuracy<\/a> and efficiency. Recent studies show AI achieving 92-96% accuracy in various medical diagnoses, frequently enough outperforming human physicians, including experienced specialists. AI tools like MAI-DxO and those developed by the Mayo Clinic have <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >successfully identified complex conditions<\/a> such as cardiac amyloidosis and colon cancer more accurately and cost-effectively than humans. In emergency settings, AI matches or exceeds doctors&#8217; performance, especially in diagnosing rare or confusing cases. <\/p>\n<p>The author argues that AI&#8217;s capabilities are already being demonstrated in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/facebook-scientists-claim-they-can-now-reverse-engineer-deepfakes\/\" title=\"Facebook Scientists Cl...m They Can Now Reverse-Engineer Deepfakes\">real-world settings<\/a>,dismissing common objections like AI&#8217;s lack of empathy or its ineffectiveness outside labs. Instead, AI can provide vital care, especially where access to human doctors is limited, such as in rural areas. The integration of AI and telemedicine can improve routine healthcare services, making them faster and cheaper, while reducing diagnostic errors that harm millions annually.<\/p>\n<p>to prepare rural regions like Kansas for this shift,four steps are recommended: expanding reliable internet infrastructure,establishing clear accountability for AI-based diagnoses,funding AI technology for small hospitals,and reforming insurance policies to cover AI-assisted care equivalently to traditional visits. The article emphasizes that this technological transition is already underway and urges states to embrace and adapt to AI-driven healthcare to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/whistleblower-amazon-regularly-forces-employees-to-confess-unconscious-racial-bias\/\" title=\"Whistleblower: Amazon Regularly Forces Employees To Confess Unconscious Racial Bias\">ensure equitable access<\/a> for all.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><br \/>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\"><br \/>\n<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><html><body><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_0)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_2)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>The ground has shifted under our feet in medical care. I already have patients who come to me after being diagnosed by AI. They just need me \u2014 for now \u2014 to write the prescription.<\/p>\n<p>For years, people said AI would only help doctors, never replace them. The evidence now makes that hard to believe.<\/p>\n<p>In one study, AI working alone got the right diagnosis 92 percent of the time. Doctors using AI got it right only 76 percent of the time \u2014 barely better than the 74 percent they got with no AI help at all. Why? The doctors trusted their own hunches over the computer\u2019s answer, and they were wrong more often.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s more proof like this. Microsoft built an AI tool called MAI-DxO. It correctly solved 85 percent of difficult medical cases from the New England Journal of Medicine \u2014 four times better than the doctors who tried the same cases, and at far lower cost.<\/p>\n<p>The Mayo Clinic built an AI tool to catch cardiac amyloidosis, a dangerous heart condition doctors often miss. The AI correctly identified the disease 85 percent of the time and correctly ruled it out 93 percent of the time \u2014 better than any method doctors had used before.<\/p>\n<p>For colon cancer, AI scored 0.98 on accuracy tests. Trained pathologists scored 0.969. The AI won.<\/p>\n<p>A Harvard study tested AI in the emergency room. It matched or beat real doctors at every step, performing best on the hardest cases: rare diseases, confusing symptoms, and situations with almost no information available yet.<\/p>\n<p>Another study compared AI to doctors across four countries. AI scored between 72 percent and 96 percent on medical exams; doctors scored only 46 percent to 62 percent. The AI didn\u2019t just beat younger, less experienced doctors \u2014 it beat the most senior ones.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t some far-off future. This is happening right now, in 2025 and 2026.<\/p>\n<p>When people hear this, they raise the same points: AI works in a lab, not in real hospitals. AI lacks empathy. AI can\u2019t hold your hand.<\/p>\n<p>The first objection collapses under its own weight \u2014 AI has already been tested on real cases from Massachusetts General Hospital, some of the hardest cases in medicine, and performed at an expert level.<\/p>\n<p>The empathy objection quietly gives up the real argument. When someone says \u201cAI can\u2019t hold your hand,\u201d they\u2019re admitting AI may already be better at the medical part. When you live far from a doctor, you don\u2019t need your hand held. You need the right answer, fast, at a price you can afford.<\/p>\n<p>AI makes mistakes. But doctors do too. More than 12 million Americans are harmed every year by wrong diagnoses, at a cost exceeding $100 billion. Those aren\u2019t AI\u2019s mistakes. They\u2019re ours.<\/p>\n<p>Some argue medicine needs a person in the room \u2014 for the exam, the touch, the hands-on treatment. New tools are eroding that argument as well.<\/p>\n<p>Wearable devices now track heart rhythm, blood sugar, oxygen levels, and blood pressure around the clock, spotting dangerous problems before a patient even feels sick. AI programs can already talk with a patient, take a health history, and assess symptoms \u2014 and they\u2019re moving quickly toward ordering lab tests and routing results to a doctor for final review.<\/p>\n<p>A five-year study found that telemedicine worked just as well as in-person care for managing ongoing conditions, post-surgery follow-up, and prenatal visits.<\/p>\n<p>For most routine visits \u2014 refilling a prescription, checking on a chronic illness, treating a sore throat, a mental health check-in \u2014 a person in the room adds little that a camera, a connected device, and a capable AI can\u2019t already provide.<\/p>\n<p>For patients who currently have no access to a doctor at all, this isn\u2019t just \u201cas good as\u201d a doctor. It\u2019s something instead of nothing.<\/p>\n<p>Becoming a doctor takes roughly 10 years and costs nearly a million dollars. After all that, a primary care physician earns between $287,000 and $307,000 a year \u2014 before office overhead and malpractice insurance.<\/p>\n<p>AI has none of those costs. It works anywhere, anytime. It doesn\u2019t need convincing to move to a small town. It never tires, never retires, never asks for a raise \u2014 and it gets smarter every year.<\/p>\n<p>For <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senators-seek-remedies-to-health-systems-cyber-threats-after-health-data-breach\/\" title=\"Senators Seek Remedies to Health Systems Cyber Threats After Health Data Breach\">small rural hospitals<\/a> already struggling to pay their bills, this isn\u2019t a someday question. It\u2019s one they need to face now.<\/p>\n<p>None of this means a robot will walk into your exam room and treat you. It means the core work doctors do \u2014 gathering facts, identifying the problem, deciding what to do \u2014 will increasingly be done better and cheaper by AI, often delivered through a screen. What stays human are things like surgery and hands-on emergency care.<\/p>\n<p>If current trends continue, the real choice for many in rural Kansas may not be between a human doctor and a machine. It may be between a machine and no care at all.<\/p>\n<p>Kansas should assess whether its 82 rural hospitals are ready for AI and telemedicine. Do they have the technology? Trained staff? Reliable internet? Hospitals that fall behind need real support, not a fend-for-yourself approach.<\/p>\n<p>Four steps would help prepare rural Kansas for what\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n<p>First, internet access. About 12 percent of Kansas households still lack reliable broadband, and none of these tools work without it. Kansas should treat rural internet the way it treats roads \u2014 essential infrastructure \u2014 and protect the federal funding already committed to building it out.<\/p>\n<p>Second, clear accountability. If an AI diagnoses or recommends treatment and something goes wrong, who\u2019s responsible? Without clear rules, doctors will avoid these tools altogether, and rural patients will be the ones who lose.<\/p>\n<p>Third, funding for technology. Many rural hospitals can\u2019t afford AI tools on their own. The state should help close that gap.<\/p>\n<p>Fourth, insurance reform. Kansas Medicaid and private insurers should pay for AI-assisted telemedicine visits the same way they pay for in-person ones. If the payment system only rewards the old model of care, the new one will never reach the people who need it most.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t complicated. The future isn\u2019t on its way \u2014 it\u2019s already here. Kansas needs to rethink how it delivers healthcare for the more than 750,000 people who call rural Kansas home.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><i><b>The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either d or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/submitop-ed\/\">here<\/a>.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #171717; display: flex;font-size: 16px;font-weight: 600;line-height: 1.5;margin: 24px 0;padding: 18px 20px 18px 30px;text-align: left;\">\n<div style=\"align-self: stretch;border-left: 3px solid #171717;flex-shrink: 0;padding-left: 20px;\"><\/div>\n<p><a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/\">Choose The Western Journal as your preferred source on Google and never miss reporting that defends truth, protects freedom, and advances Western civilization<\/a><\/div>\n<p style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; padding: 16px;\">Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/advertise-us\/?wj_source=article\">Advertise Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* Name<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* <\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<label>* Message<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t<textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\"> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> \t\t<script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey == typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts = { \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs = [ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i = 0; i < inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! 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