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Podcast Recap | AMA Update: The future of AI in medicine and what it means for physicians and practices

August 3, 2023

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming all facets of life and is set to impact health care and how physicians work significantly, specifically lessening the burden of administrative tasks. Tom Lawry discusses how AI can take both administrative and data entry tasks off clinicians' plates and get them back to the heart of why they attended medical school in the first place—to practice medicine and care for patients.

Podcast length - 11 min., 44 secs.

5 Key Takeaways

1. Generative AI is transforming health care and helping health care professionals overcome barriers.

Generative AI is the latest "flavor" of AI, with its abilities to sense, comprehend, act, and learn. The health care industry is experiencing staffing shortages in all sectors, from front desk staff to clinicians, and this is one problem generative AI can help address. While no single solution can decrease the burden on health care systems, AI can remove some administrative and data entry tasks. Think about prior authorizations, manual entry of notes, and billing; AI systems can take over these responsibilities, reducing workloads and simplifying tasks to improve staff retention and alleviate burnout.

2. AI can decrease physicians’ workloads by pulling them away from the computer and back into face-to-face patient care.

A Stanford study showed that many physicians spend more time documenting and reviewing electronic medical records (EMRs) than seeing patients. AI can give physicians the power of "keyboard liberation," meaning they will no longer be tied to a computer or device for various tasks and can focus their attention on patients.

AI is already in practice in many health systems through ambient intelligence. An example of ambient intelligence is a clinician-patient interaction during an appointment; instead of the clinician going into the EMR and documenting while conversing with the patient, the ambient intelligence system is working in the background, listening to and collecting information and forming it into a triage note for the medical professional. Not only does this save the clinician time, but it also enables more meaningful patient-clinician interactions.

3. The cognitive burden on clinicians has changed drastically over the past century due to the growth of medical data.

A newly trained physician in 1950 most likely could not have doubled their medical knowledge over the course of their practicing career. Medical knowledge today, however, doubles approximately every 72 days, making it nearly impossible for even the most well-trained physicians to keep up with the most accurate information to guide their medical decisions. AI can help keep pace with that data explosion and impact how physicians can apply this information to everyday practice.

4. The qualities a leader will need to succeed in an AI-driven world are changing, and health care leaders must rise to the challenge to stay competitive and at the top of their fields.

The leadership qualities critical in a non-AI world are still essential and remain intact; however, the changes driven by AI and AI-related technologies mean leaders must adapt and transform their skills. Leaders in an AI world will need to know and understand AI and what it can do for their practices.

This generation of health care professionals must also understand the concept of making “decisions about decisions.” Historically, humans made every decision in health care, but in the world of AI, many of these decisions will be automated. Leaders must understand the science of “decisions about decisions” and how that applies to the practice of medicine and the overall management of large health care organizations.

5. AI will change health care, and in 10 years, the once “future” of health care will look completely different than it does today.

A health renaissance has already begun with the implementation of AI. AI can help unburden clinicians and decrease the all-time high rate of clinician burnout, enabling medical professionals to practice at their highest levels. Beyond that, AI can support consumers in health management. AI can also address population health and scale it by monitoring and managing chronic conditions with clinicians.

AI can reduce human error and common mistakes, anticipate the needs of patients and clinicians, and increase efficiency across entire health systems. AI is here to stay, and how it will all play out is yet to be seen.

Any views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this podcast recap are solely that of the host and guests and do not reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of epocrates and athenahealth.

Source:

American Medical Association. (2023, July 25). The future of AI in medicine and what it means for physicians and practices with Tom Lawry. https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/digital/future-ai-medicine-and-what-it-means-physicians-and-practices-tom-lawry.