Get a second opinion on an MRI
Documented elsewhere: the builder gave Claude Code (Opus 4.8, xhigh) a roughly 266 MB DICOM export of a shoulder MRI, let it install packages, and told it only the symptom (2–3 weeks of right shoulder pain). It planned and read the scans for about an hour. Opus located an intact tendon, while the doctor described a Grade III partial tear.
- Agent or tool
- Claude Code
- Topic
- Productivity
- Reported on
- Hacker News
- Added
- 2026-10-15
Why it matters
Small, repetitive tasks eat more of the week than anyone likes to admit. Cases like this show an agent taking a chore off someone's plate end to end, not just suggesting what to do. It is one of 196 sightings filed under Productivity on Agent Sightings (number 36 by interest), and one of 164 involving Claude Code.
How you could try it
Here is a reusable prompt, written by us in our own words, that captures the task. Paste it into Claude Code or any similar agent and adjust the details to your situation.
Help me get a second opinion on an MRI. Break it into steps, show your work, and wait for confirmation before anything irreversible, paid, or outbound.
Tip: Start small: run it once on a low-stakes example, read what the agent did, and only then let it run on real work.
Source
Read the original first-hand account on Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48708941. Our summary is a paraphrase; details are in the source.