First of all, Don’s posts convey a similar fondness to homemade bread, precise tailoring with a needle and thread, and letters penned with seasonal colors of ink. Thank you, Don, that you still conceive thoughts in your human brain and manage to communicate them with a word processor that allows free text!
Secondly, my experience with AI in my private practice is that it is “fair to middlin” for first order data. These are things like programmable smart phrases that can be inserted globally into individual charts. Or checking insurance the first time. Or selecting from over 200 topics for labeling a fax. But woe is me when the insurance and related claims don’t go through. Or when the data dictionary includes a heading for adult cancer guidelines but not those for pediatric patients.
Thirdly, it doesn’t know what it doesn’t know. I suffered through a dinner conversation with a techie who swore that Alexa can outsmart doctors. When I asked him how it could handle goals of care or advanced care planning conversations he was stuck. I asked him how a machine could help me if he/it doesn’t even know what I do.
Fourthly, ageism in medicine is flagrant and ugly. One hospital requires their physicians 70 plus to take a test that includes naming animals: yessiree, identifying an elephant, camel, rhino, or what have you. And to say where they are, what day it is, which month it happens to he, and what time it is. And the spoiler alert is that those same physicians must actually DRAW a clock! Imagine that: maybe my grandchildren can provide a consult😃.
Thanks, Patti, for your testimonials about AI and ageism, and for the first time my words have ever been compared to homemade bread. I feel very appreciated.
Having moved from the Berkshires where healthcare was old school, very personal but also very inefficient to Minnesota where it is corporate but seems to work, I'm stumped by the question of how I can have both. When I left my long-time doctor's office in Great Barrington in September, I actually wept. On the other hand, try getting him on the phone! I don't know how much AI is involved but I do know they call you back promptly in Minnesota. When I first went to see the doctor in Great Barrington, he told me to expect long waits because he gives each patient (including me) as much time as they need. Visits were schmoozy. Try that in Minnesota. Everything is a trade-off.
When my children were young, they were well served by a pediatric practice that managed to combine office efficiency with compassionate and personable physicians. It took tremendous efforts to make it work, and the fact that it is so rare suggests how difficult it is to pull off.
It's become more difficult, don't you think? With mountains of paperwork and recalcitrant insurance companies, legal wrangles and so on. Doctors aren't the elevated figures they once were. My doc in Great Barrington really loved his work and didn't seem to want to retire, but in the end, he couldn't take it any more. I go back to a time when my mother would call the pediatrician if I was home sick and he would stop by at the end of the day on his way home. Can AI do that?
First of all, Don’s posts convey a similar fondness to homemade bread, precise tailoring with a needle and thread, and letters penned with seasonal colors of ink. Thank you, Don, that you still conceive thoughts in your human brain and manage to communicate them with a word processor that allows free text!
Secondly, my experience with AI in my private practice is that it is “fair to middlin” for first order data. These are things like programmable smart phrases that can be inserted globally into individual charts. Or checking insurance the first time. Or selecting from over 200 topics for labeling a fax. But woe is me when the insurance and related claims don’t go through. Or when the data dictionary includes a heading for adult cancer guidelines but not those for pediatric patients.
Thirdly, it doesn’t know what it doesn’t know. I suffered through a dinner conversation with a techie who swore that Alexa can outsmart doctors. When I asked him how it could handle goals of care or advanced care planning conversations he was stuck. I asked him how a machine could help me if he/it doesn’t even know what I do.
Fourthly, ageism in medicine is flagrant and ugly. One hospital requires their physicians 70 plus to take a test that includes naming animals: yessiree, identifying an elephant, camel, rhino, or what have you. And to say where they are, what day it is, which month it happens to he, and what time it is. And the spoiler alert is that those same physicians must actually DRAW a clock! Imagine that: maybe my grandchildren can provide a consult😃.
Patti
Thanks, Patti, for your testimonials about AI and ageism, and for the first time my words have ever been compared to homemade bread. I feel very appreciated.
Very thought-provoking. While I'm no Luddite, and am fascinated by robots and AI, you don't need Barbra Streisand to tell you that people need people.
Yes, and we're still a long way from creating machines that can know and feel as much as real human beings.
Having moved from the Berkshires where healthcare was old school, very personal but also very inefficient to Minnesota where it is corporate but seems to work, I'm stumped by the question of how I can have both. When I left my long-time doctor's office in Great Barrington in September, I actually wept. On the other hand, try getting him on the phone! I don't know how much AI is involved but I do know they call you back promptly in Minnesota. When I first went to see the doctor in Great Barrington, he told me to expect long waits because he gives each patient (including me) as much time as they need. Visits were schmoozy. Try that in Minnesota. Everything is a trade-off.
When my children were young, they were well served by a pediatric practice that managed to combine office efficiency with compassionate and personable physicians. It took tremendous efforts to make it work, and the fact that it is so rare suggests how difficult it is to pull off.
It's become more difficult, don't you think? With mountains of paperwork and recalcitrant insurance companies, legal wrangles and so on. Doctors aren't the elevated figures they once were. My doc in Great Barrington really loved his work and didn't seem to want to retire, but in the end, he couldn't take it any more. I go back to a time when my mother would call the pediatrician if I was home sick and he would stop by at the end of the day on his way home. Can AI do that?
Obviously not, and I doubt it's even trying.
“robots, the most advanced of which move their arms when they talk (Italian style).” Don : 😂❤️
Glad you noticed.
Does not compute
Does not compute
Does not compute
Does not compute……….,