This article is about my experience using Opus 4.8 to read the results of an MRI and give me a sort of second opinion on the diagnosis. Of course, I know the technology might not be there yet, which is why I'm sharing this article. Maybe it can help someone or at least provide a bit of information or entertainment.
Disclaimer: I'm of course not a doctor (this is actually the problem!) so please take everything I say with a grain of salt.
Some context (feel free to skip)
For a few weeks now, I've been experiencing some pain in my right shoulder. Even though it seemed to be getting better, I decided to get an opinion from an orthopedist. I won't go into the details, but he suggested I get an MRI, which the clinic conveniently had available. I agreed and mainly learned that I had a "Grade III (>50%-width) partial-thickness tear at the apical insertion" of my subscapularis tendon. This, of course, means little to me, but their suggested course of treatment was extensive; they even started a few minutes after I got the MRI. Coming out of the clinic, I had the feeling they had jumped the gun.
Thankfully, before I left, I asked them to send me a copy of the MRI results and a list of all the treatments they performed and suggested we repeat a total of 3 times.
I sent everything over to GPT 5.5 Pro, and right away it flagged two things:
They performed shockwave therapy on my shoulder even though a recent clinical practice guideline says clinicians should not use or recommend shockwave therapy for rotator-cuff tendinopathy without calcification; I was told during ultrasound that there was no calcification. They injected me with Traumeel, which is registered in Germany as a homeopathic medicine "without a therapeutic indication".
That did not increase my confidence. So it made me curious to analyze the MRI.
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