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by Angela Ferrante, UVM Larner College of Medicine
Clinical visits are set to change as AI quietly transforms health care. Ambient recording technology, which captures the details of patient-clinician conversations, has the potential to streamline care, reduce clinician workloads, and improve patient outcomes—particularly in rural areas.
However, this shift also presents several challenges. A recent paper co-authored by Dr. Robert Gramling of the Larner College of Medicine, examines the potential benefits and risks of using AI for clinical recordings.
In their recent publication, Gramling and colleagues from Dartmouth University address three key concerns related to AI’s role in the health care setting: burden, fairness, and commoditization.
While AI can ease the documentation burden on clinicians, it may also lead to increased patient loads, which could affect the quality of clinician-patient interactions. As demand for health care services grows faster than the supply of clinicians, time saved through automated documentation might quickly be used up by an influx of patient visits.
Although AI may improve short-term productivity and accessibility, it risks reducing the human element in care. Such a situation could lead to “automation bias,” where clinicians rely too heavily on AI-generated outputs in high-pressure situations.
To counter this, the team suggests using explainable AI (XAI) to provide clear insights that enhance shared decision-making.
Algorithmic bias is another critical issue. The authors emphasize the need for diverse data collection, patient involvement, and regular bias monitoring to ensure fair AI use in health care. They point out that speech data contains important nuances beyond words, such as accent, tone, and inflection, which affect meaning.
To address bias in AI and encourage fairness, the authors recommend three strategies: increased focus on protecting patient information, identifying and correcting biases in training data, and adopting an “ecological” approach that considers the complex nature of conversations and their contexts.
By implementing these strategies, Gramling believes scientists and doctors can create AI systems that are both technically sound and culturally sensitive.
Despite these challenges, Gramling is optimistic about AI’s potential to improve patient care and clinician workflows. He emphasizes the importance of including diverse perspectives—such as those of patients and clinicians—in the design and implementation of AI technology.
“Improving communication in health care is essential for 21st-century medicine,” he states. “Open recordings offer the chance to understand what actually happens in clinical conversations, helping patients feel heard and understood.”
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Categories: Health Care
This is TOTAL BS. WHEN DID THESE doctors offices/hopsitals etc get their patients approval? WHERE IS THE INFORMED CONSENT? Or is it like the Covid 19 vaccine, where ‘informed consent’ wasn’t present/available, blank inserts. Nor were the deadly side effects from it. It this another one of those things only worse? Does this AI listen when the doc/nurse isn’t in the room? Hope this isn’t nation wide, or just another PROGRESSIVE DEM VT thing? My family will be extremely quiet next time we go for a visit
Waiting for more comments. Most likely fifty or more.
When is the P&D elite going to tax AI?
right after they tax pornography, Ai is but a different form for Porn, government porn aka propaganda.
It will definitely say take more drugs.
It will not say eat better, exercise, be friend others, enjoy life as God designed.
It will tell you to get vaccinated, if you are white that you are ill due to your ancestors enslaving others, the doctor will ask and need to know if you have a gun in the house, on and on…….
It is not a computer program for discerning the truth, that is for sure.
I guess now we’re going to have to be proactive and ask up front if our conversations with our doctors are being recorded. If they are, I’d definitely say well, hang on a second. I’ll be recording this on my phone as well. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right? You good with that?
Most certainly, another valid option would be to refuse permission to record or tell them to turn off the recording mechanism. And another would be to go out and find yourself another doctor.
But of course, most people are sheeple and will go right along with this, not understanding in the least why they should be concerned. Doctor knows best, right? This will probably be the same group that took the jabs to a great extent, so hey, if you want to be intellectually dishonest, I’m not going to stop you.
The bigger thing though is people don’t understand AI. First there is no AI unless a human programs the “initial conditions”. Therefore, if the initial programming is faulty, prejudiced, or incomplete, that will cascade over time, with the AI spitting out irrelevant or altogether wrong conclusions or diagnoses.
Think of it like a mountainside. All the trees, the animals, and the ecosystem have lived happily together for as long as we can remember. Then one day a bad thunderstorm comes in, dumps a bunch of water, and a few trees at the top get uprooted and blown down the mountainside. They take out a few more trees, which loosens up some rocks, and pretty soon you have a rolling wave of trees, rocks, and other debris destroying that mountainside.
And so it is with AI. Buyer beware!
Just yesterday I discovered that Twila Brase, the nurse who founded Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom, has written a book called Big Brother in the Exam Room, about the dangers to our privacy of electronic medical records. I haven’t read it yet but will do so asap. It seems like a good idea for all of us to inform ourselves about this topic. And now we have to be concerned about AI listening in, too! Here’s where to find the book cchfreedom.org/big-brother-in-the-exam-room/ I recommend checking out their website in general, so many great resources! For instance they have a Medicare How-to Guide.
Dartmouth University? I know DH likes to reimagine their identity, but I haven’t heard of Dartmouth College making this name change yet.
Well I made the decision to stop going to a Dr. over three years ago: they weren’t listening to me when I said no, they had incorrect diagnoses on my record, and essentially had nothing to offer me. They still send me “urgent” notices in my email about available vaccines. I’ve been consulting with an Chinese medicine practitioner for over five years now and although I was in comparatively good compared to my contemporaries, I’ve been helped to fine tune and optimize my body’s own immune system and overall function such that I feel better than I ever did following western medicine. And no AI!