Healing Doctor

Chapter 779 Unbelievable

Shen Lang was talking nonsense, and Ji Xiang listened with great interest, completely forgetting that he was currently undergoing surgery.

Time flies.

The sterile drape was removed, and Ji Xiang saw that his left thigh was already in a cast.

The plaster cast was applied with great care; from Ji Xiang's perspective, it was almost flawless.

This is the best cast Ji Xiang has ever seen in his life.

There is a difference between manual methods and machines; one can see the big picture from small details, Ji Xiang thought to himself.

"The surgery is over," Shen Lang said with a smile. "Go back to your ward and rest for a few days, then you can be discharged and go home."

"That's it? And then? Back to the ward? Nobody comes to visit?" Ji Xiang was slightly taken aback and asked a series of questions.

"Otherwise what? What else do you want?" Shen Lang asked.

"..." Ji Xiang remained silent.

I was in a car accident, and although I only suffered a fractured femoral shaft and was sent to the hospital, the surgery was completed in less than two hours, and I didn't suffer too much.

This level of treatment and emergency care completely surpasses the real world I live in.

Ji Xiang felt very uncomfortable because he didn't even see the doctor's face from beginning to end.

What if the machine malfunctions?

The thought immediately popped into Ji Xiang's mind.

"Brother Lang, what if there's a medical malpractice incident and a medical dispute arises?" Ji Xiang asked Shen Lang directly, without hiding anything after thinking about it.

"Medical dispute?" Shen Lang was taken aback. This term hadn't appeared for many years, so Ji Xiang's question left Shen Lang somewhat bewildered.

Ji Xiang was also a little confused, looking at Shen Lang.

Does this mean medical disputes are a thing of the past? That shouldn't be the case.

From a realistic perspective, Ji Xiang believes that medical disputes are simply impossible to eliminate.

A few seconds later, Shen Lang laughed and said, "The latest data is being input into intelligent systems all over the country, no, I should say all over the world. Artificial intelligence is constantly being researched, and new technologies are emerging at an unprecedented pace."

Ji Xiang found Shen Lang's talkativeness somewhat annoying, but he could roughly understand what Shen Lang was saying.

That's already the highest level of medical care. If it really can't be cured, then it's fate.

This is equivalent to someone in their own time suffering from appendicitis and being sent to Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking University Health Science Center, or the 912 Hospital for surgery. There were basically no better options, and if any problems arose, they were beyond the reach of current technology.

Moreover, machines are colder, calmer, and more rational than humans.

"Are medical disputes really no longer a thing?"

"Haven't heard that word in ages, Xiao Ji. How come you're so fond of the dustbin of history at such a young age? That's all in the past, forget it, think about something happy," Shen Lang mocked.

As he spoke, the machine covered Ji Xiang with a sterile sheet, and he was smoothly and effortlessly transported to the flatbed.

The stretcher left the operating room "driverless" and slowly moved along the emergency department corridor.

"The dustbin of history, it really is garbage," Ji Xiang said softly after thinking for a moment.

"The problem now is that many patients' families want to come in and accompany them, and during the recovery process, there needs to be sufficient understanding and communication between the family members and the patients, which is something that intelligent systems cannot do."

Shen Lang thought for a moment, then realized he hadn't been rigorous enough, so he added, "At least it's something that current AI systems can't do."

"Oh," Ji Xiang replied.

"Don't think too much, just focus on getting better." Shen Lang patted Ji Xiang on the shoulder. "The lab data is waiting for you to go back and analyze it."

Ji Xiang's leg injury has healed considerably. Although he hasn't reached the point of mechanical ascension yet, and he's not a Transformer, he'll be able to walk freely again once he's repaired.

However, from the time of injury to the end of the surgery, his condition was stable, and the hospital only took a little over an hour to save Ji Xiang from his near-death state.

As we got on the elevator, a middle-aged couple made room for the flatbed cart.

Judging from their expressions, they seemed to be used to all of this and were not surprised at all.

"Are you injured?" the man asked suspiciously from the corner of the elevator.

"It was a car accident, but I'm fine," Shen Lang replied. "I've already had surgery and will be fine in a few days."

"Get some rest, you'll be fine after the surgery," the man smiled.

"Where are you guys?"

"My spouse had RX cancer. After six rounds of treatment in the hospital, they recovered and were discharged quickly."

"!!!"

Ji Xiang was stunned.

Although he had some confidence in the future of healthcare, it wasn't enough. At least, unmanned systems alone weren't enough to convince Ji Xiang.

The man's calm tone and confident demeanor left Ji Xiang bewildered.

RX cancer?

Although in my time, apart from the three-negative type, the degree of malignancy was generally considered to be moderate to low, and it could last for a long time.

But the man said that after six courses of treatment, he could be fully recovered and discharged from the hospital.

Moreover, he and she looked very calm, as if they had just had pneumonia, but it was a minor ailment.

Does this mean that cancer can now be cured?

"A long time ago, this was a deadly disease," Ji Xiang said softly.

Shen Lang slapped Ji Xiang on the head and said with a smile, "We study history; history is just the names of dead people."

"..."

"..."

The couple looked at Ji Xiang and Shen Lang in surprise. They were very polite and didn't say anything else, but you could tell from their eyes that they thought there was something wrong with Ji Xiang's mind.

It might have been caused by a car accident.

After getting off the elevator, Shen Lang complained, "What nonsense are you talking about? Say something auspicious."

"Hey."

"Many years ago, tuberculosis was also an incurable disease, but it later became a minor ailment. Now cancer is no longer an incurable disease, so stop looking back at old almanacs."

Shen Lang gave instructions.

"I understand, Brother Lang."

The stretcher moved automatically and arrived at the ward.

The ward was very quiet, completely different from the chaotic ward corridors that Ji Xiang had imagined.

"Brother Lang, where are the family members of the orthopedic patients?"

"What orthopedics? It doesn't exist anymore."

"That's it?"

"Yes, hospitalized patients are randomly assigned according to the severity of their injuries." Shen Lang scratched his head and looked at Ji Xiang with a strange gaze. "The boss said that people will have a stress response after suffering a major trauma. I've never seen anyone more severe than you. How come you have amnesia?"

Get a good night's sleep, we'll talk about it when you wake up.

*Smack!*

Ji Xiang didn't say anything, but then he heard a crisp slap, followed by a boy staggering back a few steps and appearing in the corridor.

"What are you doing!" Shen Lang threw Ji Xiang aside, stood in front of the boy, and faced a middle-aged man.

"You little brat, all you do is whine!" the man said angrily, pointing at the child behind Shen Lang. "All you've got is a wisdom tooth, and you're acting like you're going to die. Are you even a man?!"

"Why didn't you just pull it out? Why did you hit the child?" Shen Lang stared at the man and said very seriously.

"You think getting your teeth pulled at the hospital is free? Make it sound so easy!! It's not like you're the one paying for it." The man yelled, "You only have two teeth, and you're always whining and complaining, and now you have to come in to get them pulled."

Ji Xiang sighed.

These patients' families are quite peculiar, but after experiencing empathy many times, Ji Xiang has seen even stranger cases.

For Ji Xiang, all of this was nothing new.

But now... although there are no more medical disputes, the disputes have shifted to the patients and their families, leaving Ji Xiang speechless.

The future world is truly amazing, and the key point is that it doesn't seem to be that far removed from our own reality.

I really don't know when the technological explosion happened.

"What's wrong with wisdom teeth? They can hurt terribly. It's not you who's sick," Shen Lang argued, standing in front of the child.

His explanation was somewhat weak.

"Get out of my way," the man said rudely. "He's my son!"

"I suspect you have violent tendencies, I'm going to call the police."

Shen Lang began negotiating with the man.

Ji Xiang listened silently. The outcome of the negotiation wasn't important; the man would most likely back down.

Our Brother Lang is not just a name without substance, and Professor Zhou also has a tendency to meddle in other people's business.

Ji Xiang's stretcher ignored the noise from the other side and took Ji Xiang directly to the ward.

The robotic arm moved Ji Xiang onto the hospital bed, and Ji Xiang pressed down on it.

The hospital bed should be designed according to human kinetics and "tailor-made" to fit one's own body shape, making it extremely comfortable.

Even a single hospital bed contains an incredible amount of technological innovation.

Ji Xiang even considered dismantling the hospital bed and taking it back with him.

However, this is clearly impossible.

Intravenous infusions and treatments are all available at the hospital, and there are even various auxiliary measures to prevent deep vein thrombosis and muscle atrophy in the lower extremities caused by prolonged bed rest.

All the equipment was so thoughtful, Ji Xiang observed carefully.

Twenty minutes later, Shen Lang returned, fuming.

"That's outrageous! I've never seen a father like this. One wisdom tooth, is it really that big of a deal? If he were having a wisdom tooth coming in, and it was in excruciating pain, he'd be crying for his parents by now."

"Is it all done?" Ji Xiang asked.

"Of course," Shen Lang said. "Men always make a mountain out of a molehill when they suspect their own children. I saw the X-ray; the wisdom teeth were growing sideways, and they had to be pulled out by splitting the bone."

"He doesn't know?"

"He's never experienced it. He thinks his wisdom teeth fall out on their own, saying they fell out by themselves when he was a child." Shen Lang shrugged, sat down in the chair next to Ji Xiang, not wanting to talk about it anymore, and casually asked, "What TV programs are you watching?"

What programs are on?

"I like watching big-budget reality shows, space colonization. I guess you won't like that, so you can do it yourself," Shen Lang said. "But I suggest you go to bed early. Strange, your mind isn't clear, why doesn't the AI ​​system give you some medicine to help you sleep?"

Ji Xiang smiled.

Shen Lang said that his mind was neither clear nor unclear, existing yet not existing.

The intelligent system determined that its physical condition was normal and that it did not require sedative treatment.

"Brother Lang, I am a little dizzy after the surgery. I'll rest for a while."

"You go to sleep. I'll go get something to eat. You can have some porridge when you wake up," Shen Lang said.

Ji Xiang closed his eyes and began to recall.

Finally, I had a quiet opportunity to recall exactly what era I was in.

This is an era of interstellar colonization, seemingly not too far removed from our own time. After decades of peace, a massive war erupted, followed by another technological surge, and thus the curtain of a new era was swiftly drawn.

Intelligent medical systems were first used in war, from field hospitals to small field hospitals, and then to the smallest field hospitals, which were based on squads.

Although small, field hospitals organized by work team can perform a number of surgeries.

This technology played an extremely important role in the war; although it wasn't the deciding factor, its impact was undeniable.

After the war ended, interstellar colonization began, and each warship was equipped not with doctors, but with intelligent medical systems.

This approach not only reduces the workload on personnel but also solves the problem of experienced doctors being physically limited, and doctors who are physically fit enough to withstand the pressures of interstellar travel lacking experience and skills.

As time went on, intelligent medical systems began to be transferred from military to civilian use, gradually replacing the old hospitals.

We are currently in the final stages of intelligent medical systems almost completely replacing hospitals. Only a small number of doctors remain nationwide and worldwide, while other doctors and nurses are finding their own way out.

Intelligent medical systems are also tiered.

There was an initial version, which, in Ji Xiang's view, was similar to a county-level hospital;

There are advanced versions, similar to municipal-level hospitals;

There are the most advanced and top-level hospitals, similar to large-scale tertiary hospitals in Shanghai and Beijing.

The hospital I work for is just a basic, advanced version, far from being the most advanced or highest-level intelligent medical system.

That alone is enough to make your jaw drop.

But this led to the disappearance of the medical profession.

Machines can do so many things that doctors are practically useless.

Just like Ji Xiang's personal experience today, he didn't see any medical staff at all; the diagnosis, rescue, and surgery were all carried out by an intelligent medical system.

It's good, but the changes are too many, making it difficult for Ji Xiang to accept them all at once. In addition, with the rapid advancements in basic biology, cancer is no longer a deadly threat, and the average human lifespan has exceeded 100 years.

"Damn it, how could I have given birth to such a coward? He doesn't want to go to school, and he keeps saying he'll cause trouble just because he's getting a wisdom tooth, damn it!"

Ji Xiang heard the man in the corridor muttering curses again.

"What a piece of trash! His own son is sick, but he acts like nothing's wrong, even hitting and scolding the child," Shen Lang said disdainfully.

Ji Xiang scratched his head, recalling many experiences.

Every time I get sick, I feel like it's the most serious illness, even things like needing a scalp removed or a clavicle fracture that doctors can completely ignore.

The saying "You only feel the pain when the knife falls on your skin" is absolutely true.

"Xiao Ji, tell me who these people are," Shen Lang said to Ji Xiang.

"Sigh, there's nothing I can do about it." Ji Xiang smiled. "Everyone has their own thoughts. You'll never know how much pain you're in until you experience it yourself."

"Didn't Xun-ge say that downstairs a man is dying, next door a family is playing a gramophone, and across the street someone is playing with a child? Upstairs two people are laughing wildly; there's also the sound of playing cards. On a boat in the river, a woman is crying for her dead mother. Human joys and sorrows are not shared; I only find their noise bothersome."

"What you're saying... the boss often says the same thing," Shen Lang laughed. "That's why the boss researches things that are completely useless."

Shen Lang had just casually mentioned this when he suddenly felt a little embarrassed and immediately stopped talking.

"The boss is very farsighted; there are definitely some things I just can't understand."

Ji Xiang vaguely guessed what Shen Lang meant, and he seemed to understand the meaning of setting aside a special operating room in the system's operating room.

But Ji Xiang didn't think much of it; he was still looking around.

The hospital without doctors and nurses was truly an eye-opener for him; everything was so novel.

"Brother Lang, are there really no medical disputes?" Ji Xiang asked while looking around the novel ward.

"Yes, there was a little bit at the beginning, but as more and more people accepted it, they realized that machines almost never make mistakes, and they gradually accepted it," Shen Lang said. "But if we're being precise, we can't say there are absolutely no mistakes."

"Oh?"

"Machines can malfunction," Shen Lang said. "However, with the launch of a new generation of artificial intelligence five years ago, I don't know about other industries, but the medical artificial intelligence system conducts a comprehensive check in the background every 6 hours to ensure that machine malfunctions are detected, repaired, and maintained in a timely manner."

"!!!"

"You...don't you already know all this?" Shen Lang reached out and touched Ji Xiang's forehead. "Sigh, after all these years, I still have the habit of touching my forehead to see if I have a fever. Let me tell you, touching the forehead is especially..."

Shen Lang stopped halfway through his sentence, smiled helplessly, and looked slightly disappointed.

"Then artificial intelligence didn't develop self-awareness?" Ji Xiang asked.

"You've been watching too many movies," Shen Lang laughed. "The boss said that the first generation of artificial intelligence had consciousness, and it seems that many things happened in a higher-dimensional world, but they are all classified. The boss doesn't tell me, so I don't know either. It's all just guesswork."

From Wen, it became clear that he was even more tight-lipped than the boss; he wouldn't let a word slip.

Ji Xiang was stunned, never expecting that the "boss" had so much experience.

Shen Lang described those magnificent events in a light and casual way, as if there were many explanatory details, which further fueled Ji Xiang's imagination.

"Brother Lang, those are all big gossip scoops. Tell me about them, and I promise I won't tell anyone else."

Shen Lang gave Ji Xiang a disdainful look.

"First of all, I don't touch anything that involves classified information. Don't you know curiosity killed the cat?"

"Secondly, with that mouth of yours, you spill all sorts of gossip. Remember when we went to a patient's wedding the other day?"

Ji Xiang was too lazy to think about it and shook his head.

"A silly kid, hospitalized with an external injury. There's definitely something going on between his boss and his girlfriend who came to visit him. I could tell at a glance."

"I think that boss and the woman must have some unspeakable story, so he asked his driver to cover for him, maybe through a fake marriage or something, to ensure they could continue their illicit affair."

"We were enjoying the wedding banquet, and you had to drag me into talking about all that useless stuff, like how the boss and the bride went into the bridal chamber and came out looking languid after sex. You're such a spoilsport. Sometimes you just have to play dumb."

"Well……"

"You think everyone doesn't know? Everyone's just pretending not to know," Shen Lang said disdainfully.

"..." Following Shen Lang's words, Ji Xiang found that passage in his memory.

"Let me tell you, even the patients themselves know the truth," Shen Lang said disdainfully. "You're just making a fuss; you can't hold back a lot of things."

"Brother Lang, you're saying the patient, even the groom, knows about it?!"

"Of course, that person's seemingly confused and honest appearance was all an act."

"..."

"There are some things you shouldn't ask about. Knowing too much doesn't do you any good," Shen Lang said firmly. "As for our boss's affairs, you shouldn't ask him even more. Do you think what I said earlier about the boss's foresight was nonsense?"

"Hmm, I thought you were just a habitual flatterer, and you'd say that even when the boss isn't around," Ji Xiang said frankly.

"I'm telling the truth. The boss really has foresight and a strategic vision."

Shen Lang's eyes began to light up as he recounted some of his boss's impressive past achievements.

Ji Xiang was gradually stunned. He never expected that the system NPC would be so powerful in another world. It was as if he had the protagonist's halo, similar to the Grand Magus Liu Xiu.

Gradually, Ji Xiang fell into a deep sleep, and Shen Lang's voice was like a bedtime story.

As Ji Xiang drifted off to sleep, he opened his eyes again and found himself back in the system's operating room, with the system NPC standing in front of him.

"Teacher," Ji Xiang bowed, "the boss Brother Lang was talking about, you must be me."

"Yes, and no," the system NPC said.

"Well..." Ji Xiang had just opened his mouth when he remembered the words Shen Lang had told him.

"What?"

"The hospitals of the future are so advanced!" Ji Xiang exclaimed. "Teacher, I never thought that artificial intelligence would be the ultimate solution to medical disputes."

"The required computing power isn't much; it's just that some minor details still need polishing. The version you see is still quite rough," the system NPC said in a strange tone.

Ji Xiang really wanted to ask about the relationship between the system NPCs and artificial intelligence, and what kind of momentous events had occurred.

But he held back in the end and started communicating with the system NPC about how he got injured, how the unmanned 120 ambulance arrived, and how he received immediate treatment. The whole process took less than two hours.

This process is actually similar to the emergency and first aid procedures in hospitals today, but it is simpler, faster, has fewer errors, and eliminates the need to wait in line for the operating room.

Humans are not cattle or horses; human power has its limits.

After machines replaced doctors, everything seemed so wonderful.

"Teacher, will the techniques in the future be fundamentally different from the ones we have now?" Ji Xiang asked.

The system NPC smiled and said, "That's right, that's what you should be focusing on."

"Really? I think so."

"Of course, for example, in the case of a femoral shaft fracture described in the film 'Empathy,' the current method uses a steel plate for fixation, but in the film 'Empathy,' it was glued together with bio-adhesive."

"!!!"

Ji Xiang knew what he had missed.

"Teacher!" Ji Xiang immediately thought of something, "Can I buy it in the mall?"

"What are you thinking about?" The system NPC looked at Ji Xiang with a mocking expression.

Ji Xiang felt no shame, but instead stared intently into the eyes of the system NPC.

"You can't buy it; future products can't appear in the present." The system NPC gave Ji Xiang a definite answer.

Ji Xiang felt it was a bit of a pity.

"Take it one step at a time. If you take things out, it might only bring disaster."

"Ugh."

Ji Xiang felt like he had entered a treasure mountain but returned empty-handed.

"Teacher, what about my skills and digital enhancement?"

The system NPC did not answer Ji Xiang's question, but waved his hand lightly. Ji Xiang's eyes flickered with light and shadow as he left the system's operating room.

Lying on the hotel bed, Ji Xiang recalled this deeply moving experience and compared it with the various emergency rescues he and Meng Qingfei had performed together. It all felt like a dream.

That's wonderful, but I don't know if I'll ever live to see it all become a reality.

(End of this chapter)