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Featured Topics and Speakers
Featured Topics and Speakers
In today’s AMA update, Leading AI Transformation Advisors, healthcare hacking Join Tom Lawry to discuss what the future of AI in medicine looks like and what it means for doctors and their practice. AMA Chief Experience Officer Todd Unger will host.
speaker
- Tom Lawry, Managing Director, Second Century Tech, LLC
Unger: Hello. Welcome to the AMA Update videos and podcasts. Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to be one of the hottest topics in healthcare. And today, we continue that conversation with Tom Lawry, the leading AI transformation advisor to health and medical leaders around the world. Tom is his managing director at Second Century Tech and a best-selling author. hack your health And the former National Director of Artificial Intelligence at Microsoft joined us from Seattle. I’m Todd Unger, his AMA Chief Experience Officer in Chicago. Tom, I am very happy to meet you. welcome.
Raleigh: Hi, it’s great to be with you. Thank you for inviting me.
Unger: Since the launch of ChatGPT, much of the AI conversation in healthcare has focused on one aspect: generative AI. But the term AI clearly includes more than that. I’m a big fan of the definition you used when you visited his AMAs a few months ago. And I thought it would be a given for the audience out there to hear what you think about it. What do you mean when you talk about AI?
Raleigh: Well, that’s a great question. Generative AI is the latest addition to the range of capabilities known as artificial intelligence. So I like to keep things simple. So let’s assume, as you point out, that AI is really about IT systems: sensing, understanding, acting and learning. Perhaps more important is intelligence demonstrated by software with the ability to depict or mimic human brain functions. And what I want to emphasize is to imitate, not replace, the functions of the human brain.
Unger: In your book, you talk about how AI can solve some of the biggest problems in healthcare. This is very good news because we need that help. I would like to highlight some of the most pressing issues for physicians. It starts with obstacles such as prior permits and paperwork. How can AI reduce the administrative burden on doctors? And when will it become a reality?
Raleigh: Well, I think the answer is that it’s starting now. But hopefully it will get better. But, doctors listening, what is the essential reason you went to medical school? Probably not to become a data entry clerk, but many doctors I have spoken to feel that we have changed them that way.
Therefore, the ability to automate these highly repetitive, low-value activities using AI is one of the key areas of focus for all of us. There are now good examples of what is known as Ambient Intelligence. Instead of going to the EMR or that corner of the room to hunt and poke when the doctor is examining you, you’re having a natural conversation and in the background ambient intelligence is recording it all and putting together triage notes so you can basically spend less time as a data entry clerk and more time as a doctor. So we are already seeing it. It just gets better.
Unger: Now, with that said, let’s talk about another big concern for doctors. This is not unrelated to what we just talked about, but physician burnout. So they are already being asked to do so many things, so quickly, to so many people. And unlike when we think of EHRs, how can we ensure that AI is used not only to increase physician workload, but also to reduce physician burnout?
Raleigh: Again, AI as a tool and instrument gives us the ability to enhance the skills and work of doctors if used properly. So I want to quickly address this issue by saying that he has two burdens that the AI can handle if it runs correctly. The first is administrative control, which we have already discussed.
A Stanford University study shows that many doctors spend more time on EMR than on seeing patients. that is not correct. My colleague Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Institute and himself a very popular author, coined the term “keyboard liberation.” My point here is that AI can help all doctors unlock their keyboards. Start the Keyboard Liberation League today.
The second, which I don’t think has received as much attention as it needs, is what I call the cognitive burden imposed on physicians by the exponential growth of medical data. Thus, a doctor who had just been trained in 1950 would have finished all his practice before his medical knowledge had doubled. Now he doubles every 72 days. As a result, even the smartest and smartest doctors have a hard time keeping up with all the information they need to make the right decisions. AI has a huge opportunity in curbing the data explosion, he said.
Unger: First of all, release the #keyboard. write it down. Second, that applies to AI itself, in terms of the explosion of knowledge about medical information. The pace of change with this particular technology is incredible. How are doctors and clinics, regardless of size, coping with this situation?
Raleigh: Well, that’s a great question, but perhaps a longer answer isn’t covered in this podcast. But at its core, the world, and health and medicine in particular, usually operates on what economists call linear change in growth, the gradual change produced by technology. Then there will be adoption, creating a small gap between technology and adoption, adoption and regulation. We are at a time when economists also talk about exponential growth curves.
So the biggest challenge for everyone at the moment is not what technology can do, but the speed of change it will bring about. So I think any practice, any healthcare organization is currently being challenged because everything set for executive leadership is based on linear growth. And when it comes to change, exponential growth creates a hockey stick. So if this situation continues, I believe so, it means that everyone needs to rethink how they manage, how they teach, how they practice.
Unger: In that regard, your book also describes the qualities leaders should possess in order for organizations to adapt and thrive in this great revolution in healthcare. What do you think will be the key qualities of an AI leader?
Raleigh: First of all, I think many of the leadership qualities that have brought leaders to where they are today have remained intact and remain important. However, looking at the changes wrought by digital and transformation, I believe there are new skill sets that are desperately needed. And it’s not just my opinion. But research from McKinsey, Gartner, and others shows that leaders with successful skills in the past won’t necessarily succeed in the new world of digital and AI.
So we’re looking at some sort of new hard skills, like leaders need to know about AI, not just how to code it. But we need to understand what it is and what it can do, at least in terms of medical practice. There are many other things when it comes to design thinking, such as soft skills. Above all, I teach leaders the importance of thinking differently. And a lot of that has to do with the biggest obstacles I see when advising large healthcare organizations on massive AI value-enhancement. It’s basically the need to digitally upskill everyone in the organization, including leadership.
Unger: It’s no small challenge. How do you do that?
Raleigh: Yes, it starts with leadership. It starts with recognizing that the way we manage and lead in an AI world will be different. And while all decision-making in medical organizations has so far been made by humans and brains, a whole new science is emerging about decision-making and more.
And many of them are automated. Therefore, there are times when doctors, who are human beings, must be involved, such as medical practice and patient care. But there are many other things that can be automated that don’t necessarily require human involvement. But what leaders need to understand is the whole science of decision-making, and they need to put systems in place that actually apply to the practice of medicine and the practice of running these large medical institutions.
Unger: Now for the last question. Looking ahead, he would like to imagine the year 2033, ten years from now. How do you see healthcare changing the most as a result of AI?
Raleigh: Well, as luck would have it, there is a lot of talk today about threats and problems and even existential threats to humanity, but I believe the story could be very different if medical care were done right. We believe we have the power to create a medical renaissance. There, many of the problems we just talked about, the burdens that have burdened physicians, will be eliminated or greatly reduced, allowing physicians to practice at the highest level, not only the quality of care, but the essential pursuit of why they became physicians in the first place.
We believe we can go further when it comes to consumer relationships, where consumers are more involved in managing their health in partnership with their physicians. Beyond that, we see what is already happening in other parts of the world. There, we have the ability to truly tap into what we call population health, monitor and manage chronic diseases, etc., and provide far greater measurable value at scale by favoring AI behind physicians and supporting physician activities.
Unger: Tom, let’s put it in our little time capsule. And see you in 2033.
Raleigh: add it again—
Unger: Let’s see how —
Raleigh: ――Ten years later, Todd.
Unger: ――It will be so.
Raleigh: yes.
Unger: Thank you very much for your participation. It’s a real honor to speak with you. AI isn’t the only thing driving change in healthcare. And, in addition to what I just talked to Tom about, we’re spearheading addressing the burden of pre-clearance, burnout, and more as part of his AMA recovery plan for American doctors. See our latest achievements and efforts at ama-assn.org/recovery. We’ll be back soon with another AMA update. In the meantime, you can find all the videos and podcasts at ama-assn.org/podcasts. Thank you for joining us today. Please be careful.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this video are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the AMA.
