Burnout
With all of these uses, another hope is that AI can help thwart off burnout due to administrative burdens. Example: AI is already implemented but may be used more frequently to take notes during patient encounters.
“If that helps you get through your day easier, then maybe you have more time for patients,” Dr. Bhana said. However, he wonders if that use would lead to trying to squeeze more patients into any extra time created.
In the future, AI may be able to directly order X-ray or prescriptions, as indicated in the notes from the patient encounter, Dr. Bhana said.
Looking forward five years, Dr. Bhana would like to see rheumatologists taking even better care of patients as they are able to provide a faster diagnosis thanks to AI and potentially see a rheumatologist sooner. After patients start treatment, that treatment and their status may be monitored in a more effective way, and patients may have a more normal life instead of suffering with illness.
“On the preventive medicine end, you would hope that we will have more insights as to what it means to live a healthy life, what causes disease and illness, and how can people who may be at risk be identified early and have interventions made so they don’t go on to develop [disease],” he said.
Vanessa Caceres is a medical writer in Bradenton, Fla.
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