Embracing automation to increase connection

Aug. 23, 2023 / By Travis Bias, DO, MPH, FAAFP

The release of ChatGPT has ignited dueling flames of excitement and concern regarding the potential of artificial intelligence (AI). Will AI end humanity, or is it going to save the world and usher in a prosperous boom that will recreate our ’90s glory? 

The success of AI in health care will fully depend on how clinicians embrace these tools, using them to automate repetitive tasks while channeling augmented outputs through human clinicians’ relationships with patients. 

AI uses in healthcare already abound. AI has helped match diseases to cures that already exist and are cheap; AI is automating elements of the cumbersome prior authorization process; AI is generating draft in-basket notes that consume loads of brain power and time; AI is predicting falls in elderly patients; and, finally, AI is generating clinical documents from simply listening to the patient-physician conversation. These are not wishes that might come to reality in a decade; these are all in use today. The horse is already out of the barn. 

Read the full article in Healthcare IT Today. 

Dr. Travis Bias is a family medicine physician and chief medical officer of clinician solutions at 3M Health Information Systems.