We’re excited to share the topic and questions for this week’s #HITsm chat happening Friday, 5/27 at Noon ET (9 AM PT). This week’s chat will be hosted by John Lynn (@techguy) from @hcittoday on the topic “Will Healthcare AI Augment or Replace?”
A lot of talk about AI has been people scared that their job was going to be taken by some healthcare robot. I think this fear is often influenced by TV and movies which portray robots taking over many of the jobs that people do today. While I think it makes sense in Hollywood, the reality is often much different.
If you check out this video interview with Stephanie Lahr, MD, CIO and CMIO at Monument Health, you’ll learn some boots on the ground insight of how AI and related automation in healthcare is seen by healthcare employees. The cliff notes version is that many of the employees whose job can be automated by AI are often lower wage employees that already felt some vulnerability about their job. While this is true and is worth noting, Dr. Lahr also shared that because of the workforce shortage and the great resignation, many of these people are doing 3 people’s jobs. That change means that they’re welcoming AI and automation with much more open arms than they would have previously since they need it to survive and not hate their job.
As I pondered all this, I was hit by a tweet that @RasuShrestha shared quoting the incomparable @stacy_hurt when it comes to AI replacing a clinician-patient relationship.
“#AI does not replace a clinician-patient relationship” ~ @stacy_hurt
— Rasu Shrestha MD MBA (@RasuShrestha) May 24, 2022
My gut response was that it could if the clinician doesn’t embrace AI. I first learned about this when it came to AI radiology reads. The same principle applies to doctors and radiologists. If they embrace AI, then it will be a tool that helps them and removes the mundane from them. If they don’t embrace it, then AI will replace them (at least in some areas).
I also love the way that AI can scale the relationship of a clinician with patients. This is going to be essential in a value based care world. Let’s discuss this and more about AI as a replacement or an augmentation of staff in healthcare.
Join us for this week’s #HITsm chat where we’ll be discussing the following topics.
Topics for this week’s #HITsm Chat:
T1: Will Healthcare AI Augment or Replace? #HITsm
T2: Does your answer change if we’re talking about doctors vs nurses vs radiologists vs pharmacists vs lab techs vs front desk staff vs etc? #HITsm
T3: Can AI replace and automate tasks only or can it also replace or augment relationships? #HITsm
T4: Is every health IT company an AI company? Or should they be? #HITsm
T5: Are there areas of healthcare that AI won’t touch? Where should AI start making an impact or where has it already started impacting healthcare? #HITsm
Bonus: Are you afraid your job will be replaced by AI? Will AI augment your job? #HITsm
Upcoming #HITsm Chat Schedule
6/3 – TBD
Hosted by TBD
6/10 – TBD
Hosted by TBD
6/17 – TBD
Hosted by TBD
6/24 – TBD
Hosted by TBD
7/1 – TBD
Hosted by TBD
7/8 – Technology and Advanced, Team-based Primary Care
Hosted by Christopher Crow, MD (@catalysthg)
We look forward to learning from the #HITsm community! As always, let us know if you’d like to host a future #HITsm chat or if you know someone you think we should invite to host.
If you’re searching for the latest #HITsm chat, you can always find the latest #HITsm chat and schedule of chats here.
