If I’m at the doctor’s and they show me scan results, I need to photograph them then and there because they might make it hard to get the images later, particularly any 3D imaging. These days it’s so easy and valuable to get a second opinion with LLMs… if they can see your scans.
My oral surgeon specifically declined to give me his recommendation on whether to remove one wisdom tooth, remove just the crown, or leave it in. The risk profiles are pretty different – small risk of nerve damage now vs risk of having to remove later in life multiplied by greater risk of nerve damage when I’m older.
The AIs are disagreeing. Scans could be quasi-dispositive for them but I don’t have photos because the surgeon said “sure” when I asked to get a copy of the files, and I assumed I could get all the data from them later. Turns out, yes, I can get the raw 3D scan file (the most information dense one) – if I drive back. It’s a 20 minute drive, but I’d have to go in the middle of the workday, when I watch a toddler. Pretty difficult. I asked them to take a screenshot from that 3D file, and they responded “we don’t do that”. I feel pretty stupid.
I’m going to try to install a TAP where if I’m staring at a scan in a doctor’s office, I need to take my phone out and start taking photos, even if they say they can give me the files later.
Some additional common sense from Claude:
Worth generalizing the rule wider than photos: when you’re in the room, the marginal cost of information is near zero, and the moment you leave it goes to hours-of-phone-calls.