The health care industry rightfully remains vigilant against external cyber threats, with the Director-General of the World Health Organization even labeling file loss from ransomware as potentially “issues of life and death.” Patient safet…
Category: Health IT
Call Centers Replaced Many Doctors’ Receptionists. Now, AI Is Coming for Call Centers.
Artificial intelligence products with lifelike voices are being marketed to schedule or cancel medical visits, refill prescriptions, and help triage patients. Soon, many patients might initiate contact with the health system by speaking not with a human but with AI.
In medicine and law, professions that society relies upon for accuracy
Integrity and trust are foundational. But today, that trust is under assault—not from human error, nor negligence, but from the sophisticated but disturbingly unreliable outputs of artificial intelligence (AI). What the media euphemistically calls R…
“Think twice, heal once”: Why medical decision-making needs a second opinion from your slower brain (and AI)
Medicine demands fast decisions. Chest pain in triage. A vague complaint from an elderly patient. A scan with subtle shadows. But the speed that saves lives can also lead to predictable, systematic errors, especially when we trust our gut too much. Psy…
AI in mental health: a new frontier for therapy and support
The mental health crisis in America continues to intensify. With therapist shortages, high costs, and long waitlists, there are millions of people without access to therapy. As a cognitive scientist who analyzed therapy transcripts in grad school and n…
Why fearing AI is really about fearing ourselves
I was at a conference of physician executives and physician founders recently, and there were many stimulating conversations. The idea that AI could see us as a threat and eventually destroy us came up in various forms, often as a half-serious joke. Ha…
Expert Q&A: Dr. Jared Pelo, ambient clinical pioneer, explains how Dragon Copilot helps clinicians deliver better care
This article is sponsored by Microsoft Dragon Copilot. Microsoft Dragon Copilot, part of Microsoft Cloud for Health Care, provides an AI assistant for clinical workflow. It combines ambient conversation capture, natural language understanding, and adva…
Flawed Federal Programs Maroon Rural Americans in Telehealth Blackouts
Taxpayers — through federal infrastructure programs — have paid billions of dollars to internet companies to hook up rural Americans. Some communities have nothing to show for it, leaving medically vulnerable rural patients disconnected and without access to telehealth.
Rethinking patient payments: Why billing is the new frontline of patient care [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! Health care executive Blake Walker discusses his article, “From caregivers to collectors: Navigating the new landscape of patient payments.” He describes a per…
Health care’s data problem: the real obstacle to AI success
As health care continues its digital transformation journey, a critical reality is becoming increasingly apparent to industry leaders: The success of artificial intelligence in health care hinges entirely on data quality. While the excitement around AI…
