A Jacked-Up Knee & AI

The patient summary instructed a skaterboy on several things he should do “to heal your jacked-up knee.”  The summary could have talked instead about a sprained MCL, but an AI-enabled ambient documentation system heard the way the skaterboy talked about his knee and created a skaterboy-centric summary that was clear, understandable, and relatable.  And it simultaneously and instantly created a highly specific physician’s note in proper SOAP format.

This was one of many AI encounters featured both at #ViVE and #HIMSS that gave me chills. Rewinding to “before Chat-GPT,” the discussion on AI was dominated by biased datasets. But after November 30, 2023, the day ChatGPT took the world by storm, the conversation and uses shifted to wonder.  The public (and me as well) are in awe. This does not mean that the biased data sets are no longer an issue, but it now has to share a lot more bandwidth with the awe of AI output that ordinary people can generate.

ChatGPT hit 100 million users in two months - faster than any other technology.  For comparison, it took TikToc 9.5 months, Facebook 4.5 years, and the basic house telephone, 75 years. Many leaders of tech and industry have called for a pause on AI development until regulatory policy catches up. One massive concern is that AI is in the fantasy business; they have a tendency to “drift,” sometimes making up facts and generating flat-out lies. Just glance back a few years to see how social media, destined for good, had big, unintended consequences when tech-enabled, human-generated lies deepened mass polarization. The public, for now, has spoken, and it is in love with AI.

But back to skaterboy. The health administrator who shared that example gave one final chill and teared up giving it: his wife, a physician, was working less and less. She was overwhelmed with the documentation and administrative burden of the electronic medical record and decided to scale back her time.  Post-implementation, she is increasing her hours, getting home at a decent time, and being a fully present family member. And that was enough to make an administration - the husband - cry.