MD Whistleblower

Artificial intelligence (AI) has moved into physicians’ exam rooms in my institution, albeit on a beta testing basis. Software will be able to listen in to the conversations and then generate an office note.   AI will be able to distinguish among the patient, the physician and others present.   One of the casualties of this innovation is that patients will no longer enjoy the experience of watching the physician spend most of the allotted time pecking on the keyboard without eye contact. Yes, doctors and patients in the AI era will be nostalgic for the good old days when physicians battled and often surrendered to their computer adversaries. Does AI generated office notes sound too futuristic?   We ain’t seen nothing yet.   I suspect that most of AI’s future role in my profession and yours and elsewhere is beyond our imagination.   We're entering a new dimension! At least in the short term, physicians will need to review AI generated notes for accuracy and...

Artificial intelligence (AI) has arrived and will permeate every aspect of our society.  It will touch all of us in our work, in the arts, in entertainment, in our government, and in our culture.  As with all technology, it will deliver us both blessings and curses.  We have been sharply warned of its potential destructive capability even by advocates of this technology.  Will governments, industry, and the public agree on proper guardrails and restraint or will the tiger simply be let out of the cage?  I worry that the strategy will be Ready! Fire! Aim! , instead of adopting thoughtful and prudent measures to keep us safe.  Indeed, I’ve offered some sober thoughts on this issue to my readers in a prior post . My medical journals are now riddled with studies on various medical uses of AI portending an unimaginable future in the medical profession. A few paragraphs further down in this post, I will ask my readers a philosophical question regarding AI and...

One thing we have all learned about technology is that it cannot be restrained.  With the release of ChatGPT and various competitors, we are aware that an unfathomable technology will disrupt our lives in ways beyond our imagination.  In the coming years 2 nd and 3 rd generation AI will replace its forerunners. My guess is that this technology will dwarf the impact that the internet has had on all of us.  It will be able to create and cure and innovate and communicate and build and teach and protect and even drive your car.   As mentioned, future AI functions and capabilities are beyond the horizon and are out of view. Exciting?   What if your job would be an AI casualty?    It you drive a vehicle for a living, how will you and your family adapt when human drivers are no longer necessary?   Even jobs and occupations that we might believe are beyond AI’s grasp, may be in the crosshairs.   AI’s reach will be boundless.   It’s tentacl...

Years from now, the notion of simple telemedicine will seem quaint.  Keep in mind that as recently as a decade ago, most physicians would have denied that telemedicine could ever play a role in the medical profession. Physicians would have argued that this would dismantle the fundamental unit of medical care – the in-person office visit. Physicians would have rigidly maintained that they had to be face-to-face with their patients.   Doctors would need to observe their demeanor and body language and other non-verbal signals.   The physician would need to perform a physical examination to discover additional clues that might help to explain the patient’s symptoms.   Indeed, medical professionals and others have expressed that the act of touching itself served as a bonding experience between patients and their doctors.   The very definition of ‘bedside manners’ implies that the patient and physician are in the same location. Today, there are physicians who prac...