Revisionist History (‘The Dog Will See You Now’)
Podcast review
Release Date: August 26, 2021
Rating: Entertaining 4/5 | Informative 4/5 | Inspiring 3/5
Can dogs be the answer to medical diagnostic challenges? Are they the missing link to early detection and preventing the spread of disease? Could they have been instrumental in controlling COVID-19?
We may be familiar with the concept of dogs being used to detect explosives, weapons, and narcotics, but the use of dogs to detect disease is perhaps less well known. In this episode of Revisionist History, the soothing, familiar voice of Malcolm Gladwell explores how dogs are being trained to sniff-out diseases.
The podcast presents compelling evidence that dogs may be the very solution we’ve been waiting for. Many of the currently available diagnostic tests have dangerously high error rates that can result in invasive and unnecessary treatment. Testing for prostate cancer, for example, has a 15% false positive rate. Conversely, according to the podcast interviewees, “dogs are better than any test” and experiments show that COVID-19 can be detected by dogs with “99% accuracy”. These findings are even backed by peer-reviewed studies.
“Dogs may be the very solution we’ve been waiting for.”
Gladwell proposes that dogs are a quick, cost-effective, non-invasive, and seemingly fool-proof solution to detecting many diseases. But, as I sat on the bus listening to this podcast, I started to consider the broader implications that dog-diagnostics may have on healthcare.
Introducing a new diagnostic method would require a massive overhaul of the healthcare system. Gladwell touches on the feasibility of training and placing thousands of dogs in schools, workplaces, transport hubs or public gathers.
Yet as I sat listening, I also wondered whether patients and healthcare practitioners alike would be accepting of the results. How would perceptions and norms need to change? What are the ethical considerations for training and taking care of these animals? These are just some of the questions I had considered in the 36 minutes of listening time and there are likely to be countless more questions that other listeners asked themselves. The evidence may be compelling, but I, for one, don’t see dog-diagnostics taking off just yet.