explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1619: Watson Medical Algorithm

2015-12-21T12:30:57Z

Puggan: /* Transcript and Discussion of Medical Appropriateness */ Discharge patient adjusted to title text

{{comic
| number = 1619
| date = December 21, 2015
| title = Watson Medical Algorithm
| image = watson_medical_algorithm.png
| titletext = Due to a minor glitch, 'discharge patient' does not cause the algorithm to exit, but instead leads back to 'hunt down and capture patient'.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|much more on the different procedures etc.}}

IBM's {{w|Watson_(computer)|Watson}} is a natural language system designed to answer questions posed by humans. Recently, IBM has extended Watson to act as a {{w|clinical decision support system}}, using image analytics to aid physicians in medical decision making. In this comic, Randall shows a {{w|Flowchart|flowchart}} representing a possible algorithm for Watson, including bizarre techniques including surgical alteration of a patient to match a height and weight chart and squeezing the patient to remove yellow fluids. Like [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]], this comic pokes fun at a rigid, poorly-designed setup that ends up potentially doing more harm than good. The algorithm depicted treats a patient as more of a machine or mechanical system than a living being, especially through decisions such as:

* Injecting oxygen into patients with low oxygen saturation, rather than treating the root cause
* Removing and inspecting a skeleton, then diagnosing the patient's condition with a bone count
* Dissecting a doctor "for parts" after consulting him or her for advice
* Removing extra limbs from a patient if the count is less than 100
* Determining whether the "build environment" of the patient is sane. This is most probably a reference to the configure script used in the {{w|GNU_build_system|GNU build system}}, which emits "checking whether build environment is sane" as one of its status messages.
* Rinsing the whole patient with a saline solution
* Removing organs from a patient regardless of response to an organ donation request

Other decisions appear to be entirely unrelated to the conditions upon which they are predicated:

* If the patient has left because he did not cough up blood, then hunt down and capture patient (and continue)
* If the patient doesn't rate their pain on a scale from 0-10, sequence their genome, apply a {{w|tourniquet}}, and perform an {{w|autopsy}}
* If the patient's phones battery is low, defibrillate until the battery is charged, sync photos, then administer general anesthesia
* If the patient is successfully comforted after an oxygen injection, check their medical history and apply skin grafts
* If green fluid is released from the patient, begin to cauterize
* If the patient has 100+ limbs, check their Vitamin D level

The title text implies that, if the patient is so lucky to ever reach one of the two places with the option "discharge patient," a minor glitch will cause to program to go back to the ''hunt down and capture patient'' option which thus force the patient and the program to repeat the process again in an infinite cycle, that will only end once the patient give another rating of their pain level than on the 0-10 scale. Then the program will start to sequence their genome then apply a tourniquet and finally perform an autopsy, on what will in the end for certain be a deceased patient, but maybe not when the autopsy began. This will finally cause the patient to leave the cycle... as a corpse!

This is one of many comics with [[:Category:Flowcharts|flowcharts]], amongst other a recent comic with that very name: [[1488: Flowcharts]].

This is the second comic in a row about health issues with the last comic being [[1618: Cold Medicine]].

==Transcript and Discussion of Medical Appropriateness==
{{incomplete transcript}}
{| border=1
| | Step
| | Medically valid?
| | Conditions and following step
|-
| |
Draw Blood
| background-color:green |
Phlebotomy is a normal early step in the diagnostic process, but not as first and unconditional step
| |
Record patient’s name
|-
| |
Record patient’s name
| background-color:green |
OK
| |
Measure Patient’s height and Weight
|-
| |
Measure Patient’s height and Weight
| |
OK
| |
Consult Standard height/weight chart
|-
| |
Consult Standard height/weight chart
| |
OK
| |
Surgically adjust patient to match
|-
| |
Surgically adjust patient to match
| |
May be considered ethically dubious unless there are sound medical reasons for doing so. Could be an allusion to [[en:Procrustes]]
| |
Is patient coughing up blood?
|-
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |
Is patient coughing up blood?
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |
| |
Yes: Gather blood and return it to body
|-
| |
No: Is patient still here?
|-
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |
Is patient still here?
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |
| |
Yes: Record pulse rate
|-
| |
No: Hunt down and capture patient
|-
| |
Hunt down and capture patient
| |
| |
Is patient still here?
|-
| |
Gather blood and return it to body
| |
| |
Record pulse rate
|-
| |
Record pulse rate
| |
| |
Is patient screaming?

|-
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |
Is patient screaming?
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |
| |
Yes: Ignore
|-
| |
No: Check blood O2 saturation
|-
|-
| width="33%" rowspan=2 ` |
Check blood O2 saturation
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |

| |
>50%: Remove and inspect skeleton
|-
| |
<50%: Inject oxygen
|-
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |
Remove and inspect skeleton
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |
| |
Too many bones: Is fluid coming out of patient?
|-
| |
Too few bones: Request consult with human doctor
|-
| |
Request consult with human doctor
| |
| |
Dissect doctor for parts
|-
| |
Dissect doctor for parts
| | This may be considered ethically dubious. Possible
reference to the Doctor Who episode “The girl in the fireplace”
| |
Discharge patient
|-
| |
Discharge patient
| |
| |
END STATE (before you read the title text)
|-
| |
Is fluid coming out of patient
| |
| |
|-
| |
Squeeze patient
| |
| |
|-
| |
What colour?
| |
| |
|-
| |
Activate sprinklers
| |
| |
|-
| |
Subdue patient
| |
| |
|-
| |
Apply cream
| |
| |
|-
| |
Ask patient to rate pain level
| |
| |
|-
| |
Massage scalp
| |
| |
|-
| |
Patient is healthy
| |
| |
|-
| |
Admit for observation
| |
| |
|-
| |
Laser eye removal
| |
| |
|-
| |
Sequence genome
| |
| |
|-
| |
Apply tourniquet
| |
| |
|-
| |
Perform autopsy
| |
| |
|-
| |
Inject oxygen
| |
| |
|-
| |
Comfort patient
| |
| |
|-
| |
Subdue patient
| |
| |
|-
| |
Review medical history
| |
| |
|-
| |
Skin grafts
| |
| |
|-
| |
Count number of limbs
| |
| |
|-
| |
Remove extra limbs
| |
| |
|-
| |
Measure vitamin D
| |
| |
|-
| |
Check whether build environment is sane
| |
| |
|-
| |
Rinse patient with saline solution
| |
| |
|-
| |
Is patient phone battery low?
| |
| |
|-
| |
Defibrillate
| |
| |
|-
| |
Sync photos from camera
| |
| |
|-
| |
Administer general anaesthesia
| |
| |
|-
| |
Blood loss?
| |
| |
|-
| |
Patient address changed?
| |
| |
|-
| |
Request organ donation
| |
| |
|-
| |
Remove organs
| |
|
|-
| |
Discharge patient
| |
| END STATE

|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]
[[Category:Flowcharts]]

Talk:1518: Typical Morning Routine

2015-04-29T12:43:20Z

Puggan: /* Air Vent */ drown the speaker

== Spelling and Commentary ==

There are a couple spelling mistakes. 'hos' in the first sentence, 'cold' instead of 'could'. Probably more.

Instead of correcting the spelling, I was wondering about the tone of the explanation. Specifically, shouldn't this be written in a more neutral tone without the side commentary?

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the contribution. Just curious.

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.101|108.162.221.101]] 11:36, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

If he has hair, shouldn't he be called Hairy by definition?
Sidenote: Did I really just use the word whence?[[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.228|199.27.130.228]] 05:57, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

Added first draft for the transcript. This is my first edit here, so feel free to clean it up. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.158|173.245.56.158]] 06:02, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

I think that this is still Cueball because his hair isn't a different colour to his head. The only reason we can see it is because it's bed hair, and he hasn't combed it down yet. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.172|141.101.98.172]] 06:06, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
:It is not [[Cueball]] when he has hair. It is not hair enough to call him [[Hairy]]. He has obviously still hair in the last panel, where it is less morning hair, and it is now clearly black (as Hairys). But there is too little air for it to be Hairy in my opinion. However, if it should be either of the two it would be Hairy. Makes no sense to call a guy with hair (any hair) Cueball. I have removed all reference to Cueball and the hairy category that was also added. Since we do not know who is lying beside him, we cannot even use this to say anything about him. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:27, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
::Someone has changed it to Hairy. See further comment below. So lets call him that. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:44, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

I don't see how this comic is about <strike>sarcasm</strike> or language. It ''contains'' language, but it isn't ''about'' language. '''Update''': Oh, right, the title text ends with a sarcastic comment.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.158|173.245.56.158]] 06:17, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

I think that the character should be [[Hairy]], as the name is "used by xkcd explainers to describe male characters with hair and no other distinguishing features."--[[User:17jiangz1|17jiangz1]] ([[User talk:17jiangz1|talk]]) 07:31, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
:Well then lets call him Hairy then - see discussion above though... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:44, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

I would like to be the first to point out similarities between this comic and [[349: Success]]. He starts with hitting snooze (easy) then needs to switch applications (not really worse yet, bear with me), remove battery (losing whatever is unsaved in RAM), bricking the phone (losing it, though maybe just until he has time to reinstall the OS) and finally is willing to fill the flat with mercury vapours (which is a major health hazard). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.136|141.101.104.136]] 11:32, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
== Air Vent ==

Is having an air vent in your floor something common? o.o [[User:Pinkishu|Pinkishu]] ([[User talk:Pinkishu|talk]]) 09:28, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
:Yes, but I had the same question. See wiki links in the updated explanation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:21, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

Also, pouring water in the vent will short-circuit the smart-phone which gives us the same result as bricking a smart-phone. [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 09:55, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
:I also though of that and added it. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:21, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
:Adding enough water to drown the speaker should drown the noise? [[User:Puggan|Puggan]] ([[User talk:Puggan|talk]]) 12:43, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

:And pouring mercury will dissolve some of the metals in the phone. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.94|141.101.104.94]] 10:01, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
::Not necessarily if it actually floats on-top. But I'm questioning if a smartphone lies flat on a surface, would the mercury then actually get beneath it? I would not be surprised if it would make it stick to this surface. Of course if you put the phone on top of a pool of mercury, it would not think. Not much would! But this is a different story. Hopefully they just move out instead ;-) Or maybe get really awake and start to think. Will add this last part to the explain --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:21, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

== Noise and battery ==

How much effective are today's phones in making noise? If they use the same circuits as for playing music (which I suspect most do), I don't think they will be able to do it for weeks, even in airplane mode ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:30, 29 April 2015 (UTC)