Quo Vadis, AI-Empowered Doctor?

TL;DR

This paper discusses how AI is changing the role of doctors and emphasizes the need to integrate AI education into medical training.

Contribution

The paper advocates for systematically incorporating AI education into standard medical curricula to prepare future physicians.

Findings

Physicians are transitioning from independent practice to employed positions, affecting how new technologies are adopted.

AI applications are being rapidly integrated into clinical workflows, altering expectations of physician productivity.

There is a need for physicians to be actively involved in AI integration to address liability and workflow changes.

Abstract

In the first decade of this century, physicians maintained considerable professional autonomy, enabling discretionary evaluation and implementation of new technologies according to individual practice requirements. The past decade, however, has witnessed significant restructuring of medical practice patterns in the United States, with most physicians transitioning to employed status. Concurrently, technological advances and other incentives drove the implementation of electronic systems into the clinic, which these physicians were compelled to integrate. Health care practitioners have now been introduced to applications based on large language models, largely driven by artificial intelligence (AI) developers as well as established electronic health record vendors eager to incorporate these innovations. Although generative AI assistance promises enhanced clinical efficiency and diagnostic precision, its rapid advancement may potentially redefine clinical provider roles and transform workflows, as it has already altered expectations of physician productivity, as well as introduced unprecedented liability considerations. Recognition of the input of physicians and other clinical stakeholders in this nascent stage of AI integration is essential. This requires a more comprehensive understanding of AI as a sophisticated clinical tool. Accordingly, we advocate for its systematic incorporation into standard medical curricula.

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