diagnosing

It pains Tim Odegard that four decades after a misguided approach to diagnosing dyslexia kept him from getting help in school, thousands of children across the U.S. are needlessly suffering for the same reason.During the initial weeks of first grade Odegard's struggles with reading went undetected as he memorized words that classmates read aloud before him. The strategy worked so well that his teacher moved him to the position of “first reader.” It then became apparent that the six-year-old not only wasn't the strongest…

This story was originally published in Group Therapy, a weekly newsletter answering questions sent by readers about what’s been weighing on their hearts and minds. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.A diagnosis of autism, ADHD or both can be life-changing. Although there’s still stigma, misconceptions and discrimination tied to both conditions, these imperfect-yet-specific labels can validate what neurodivergent people have sensed about themselves all along — that this is just how they’re wired, and that their…

For years, many have feared that artificial intelligence (AI) will take over national security mechanisms, leading to human slavery, domination of human society, and perhaps the annihilation of humans.One way of killing humans is medical misdiagnosis, so it seems reasonable to examine the performance of ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that is taking the world by storm. This is timely in light of ChatGPT's recent remarkable performance in passing the US medical licensing exam. Computer-aided diagnosis has been attempted many…