VIDEO: 'AI offers world-changing ability' to improve primary care practices

ORLANDO — Primary care physicians can use large language model artificial intelligence to substantially improve their practices, according to a presenter at OMED.

Speaking to Healio, David O. Shumway, DO, a third-year internal medicine resident at Keesler Medical Center, noted that frequent problems in practices can include documentation burden, prior authorization and corresponding with insurance companies and patients.

“[Artificial intelligence (AI)] offers the world-changing, fundamental, foundational ability to change all that, and improve your life and your practice incredibly,” he said.

Shumway discussed several ways that large language models like ChatGPT can be used in practice — as an ambient medical scribe for recording transcripts during patient visits, for example, or employing optical character recognition to scan written medical records and analyze them into electronic medical records.

“No longer do you have to go through and pour over piles of handwritten medical documents,” he explained. “You can use AI to analyze all of that and get you exactly that one missing echo or colonoscopy record from before and put it in your chat.”

Also, ChatGPT can be used to look up the most current guidelines for treatment or research projects, Shumway said.

Reference:

• Shumway D. Work smarter, not harder: Applications and use-cases of large language model artificial intelligence for the physician. Presented at: OMED; Oct. 6-8, 2023 (hybrid meeting).