The promise of AI scribes sounds like a dream come true and it will be, just not for long

We are in the early adoption phase at the peak of the hype cycle. The vision of having your computer write the note for you with faster workflows, and more time for patient care is soooo enticing.

But as with any game-changing technology, there’s a catch: it’s a double-edged sword. The leading edge cuts your daily workload magnificently, but the trailing edge—the industry’s inevitable response to your increased productivity—is a clear and obvious danger to physicians in ways we can’t yet imagine.

IN THIS BLOG POST:

• How the virtual scribe programs are trained and how they will change your work flow.
• Why they might save you up to 50% of the time you now spend on visit notes.
• How the industry will respond to this increase in productivity.
• And why I fear for a future that holds deeper and darker sources of burnout than just the exhaustion of documentation.

An article in Family Practice management this month provides us with what feels like a blueprint for the future of primary care in the USA

Here is the reference: https://www.aafp.org/pubs/fpm/issues/2024/0700/addressing-social-needs.html

You will notice that the article is about a primary care practice model that addresses the Social Determinants of Health [SDOH].

The last paragraph in the article hints at the true value of this business model. The heading reads:
THE OPPOSITE OF BURNOUT

Working in this new, hybrid system allows the doctors to reclaim their primary role in patient care and reconnect with meaning and purpose in their practice of Medicine.

Note writing AI will provide massive short-term relief to stressed-out physicians.

This technology can disconnect the detail and quality of your notes from your personal data entry skills. It will get you home sooner and eliminate pajama time.

Unfortunately, after a short break from the stress of documentation, things will only get worse.

After the A.I. implementation, your employer will make an inevitable change to your work flow that will change burnout forever. 

Last week I sent a survey to the Physician Leaders on our mailing list, asking personal questions about your values, goals, stresses and satisfaction with your leadership role.

Here are the responses of 22 who responded - offering us a first-person perspective on what it's like to be a physician leader in these challenging times.

WHAT DID THEY SAY?
Click on any question below to be taken to the collectivecresponses for that question:

GIVE US YOUR RESPONSES:
Here's the link to answer the survey questions for yourself:

 

>> Uplevel Your Skills and Influence as a Physician Leader <<
Learn how to build true influence in the C-suite
How to avoid the Darth Vader comparisons from your colleagues
Stop the overwhelm and lead with power and precision
Use THIS LINK for a quick Discovery Connection

The boomer doctor retirement cliff will decimate the US physician Workforce between now and 2030.

Learn what to watch out for - and what you must start doing now - to implement a Physician Wellness Strategy while there's still time

Watch these short outtakes from our recent Wellness Champion Summit Webinar

1) What is the Boomer Doc retirement cliff? Is it really that bad? Does AI at the same time make things better or worse?

Our Crisis Hotline Audit and Awareness Action Plan [CHAAAP]

            By Dike Drummond MD, CEO TheHappyMD.com  [Another A.I. FREE Blog Post, just like ALL of my content]

PHYSICIAN LEADERS:
Are you committed to doing everything you possibly can to prevent physician suicide?

This CHAAAP is how you answer that question.

This document contains two steps that will ensure you do everything possible to be there for your people when they need you the most.

1) A simple audit that will show you how badly you fail to support your struggling doctors. It will take you less than 15 minutes to complete.

2) A checklist for a complete crisis hotline awareness program that will fill all the gaping holes in your current system.

DOWNLOAD THE CHAAAP CHECKLIST NOW
[no email required]

DO THIS FIRST

Is the end of disease a good thing Mother Earth?

Yesterday I heard an investing Guru named Eric Fry name his top A.I. Investments going forward - all of which were in healthcare.

As I listened to his pitch about making a killing in A.I. investments - all I could hear was how these breakthroughs could actually kill the planet and all the humans on a VERY SHORT time frame.

Startups are using AI like this:

👉 Say you've got a deadly disease and you would like to cure it with molecular precision

👉🏼 Your AI Healthcare consultant organization, will sequence your genome, and create 100,000 digital twins of you

👉🏾 Then conduct 100,000 virtual experiments looking for a cure for your illness. Which they are confident they will find 

👉 You will be healed - you will not die.

Once it's dialed in I fully expect this technology to be able to decrease your total time in the chart by as much as 50% and more.

This is a true disruptive innovation, allowing you to
Get Home Sooner WITHOUT Working Harder

What am I talking about ?

It's usually referred to as a DIGITAL SCRIBE.
It is so much more than that.

A scribe just transcribes your conversation. This new technology leverages the Chat GPT engine's ability to participate in a human conversation by training it on a diet of hundreds of thousands of notes written by physicians in your specialty ...

... so it can listen to your conversation with the patient and then actually WRITE YOUR NOTE FOR YOU.

And it's a shockingly good, bring-tears-to-your-eyes note.

The technology can write notes for in person and virtual visits, in multiple different languages.

And it's ready for you to give it a test drive right now.

Physician Leadership:
A Simple Communication Tool to Avoid the Disruptive Doctor Label (video training)

If you invite physicians into your management or leadership meetings, we will diagnose the problems in the system of care with the same speed and skill we diagnose disease in our patients.

Sooner or later we will also run into any number of situations that qualify as hypocrisy: where the organization says one thing and does something completely different.

Nothing in this world upsets a physician more than hypocrisy. 

We see it right away, like a flashing red light. It drives us to shout, thump tables, foam at the lips and more. This undisciplined behavior results in many doctors being labeled a "disruptive physician" and their completely legitimate concerns downplayed or ignored by the other senior leaders at the table. This outright dismissal of legitimate concerns can be a major cause of physician burnout for some doctors.

Here is a Simple Communication Tool to Completely Avoid Being Labeled Disruptive and get your concerns addressed.

Stop Physician Suicide Part 3:

Coaching a Suicidal Physician Client [CME]

[Part 1 - The first-person experience of Suicidal Ideation - is here]
[Part 2 - Reaching out to a suicidal physician colleague - is here ]

Unfortunately, we cannot stop all physician suicides for two simple reasons.

• Doctors are too good at hiding their struggle and distress. Our "never show weakness" programming is so very strong.
  
  
• We know the anatomy and physiology, so doctors are very good at themselves.
  
  

What we can do is reach out to any of our colleagues who appear to be struggling.  

In this podcast/post, you will learn:

~ How to recognize the signs and symptoms of burnout and suicidal ideation

~ A proven method to reach out to that friend/colleague, simply and effectively 

The end result is lives will be saved that would be lost without your caring and outreach.