Artificial intelligence is booming across every industry, especially healthcare. Nearly half, or 43%, of medical practices in the U.S. have been using AI at work for over a year, with 36% of practicing physicians, nurses and IT professionals using it to transcribe patient notes.
In addition, several practices are using it for documentation requirements, reimbursement claims and as a virtual scribe.
“In the fast-paced world of ASCs, billing teams are constantly juggling coding changes, payer denials, prior authorizations and time-consuming appeals. Efficiency isn’t just nice to have — it’s survival,” Brooke Day, administrator at Hastings (Neb.) Surgical Center, told Becker’s. “That’s why ChatGPT has become one of the most useful tools we’ve brought into our workflow. It’s not just a novelty or a shortcut — it’s a real solution to one of our biggest time drains: payer communication.”
Here are some ways six ASC specialties are currently using AI:
Orthopedists
Orthopedic surgeons are currently using AI for clinical documentation. “Many of us have been bogged down by all the requirements for documentation over the years. Every year, the need for more documentation seems to further slow our ability to see patients. When you combine these requirements with continued cuts to reimbursements, it creates an unsustainable cycle. This combination becomes most difficult for physicians in private practice and threatens their ability to survive. AI offers the potential to return to a time when we can just talk with and examine our patients. It offers a future when all our documentation will be done with minimal administrative effort from us, outside of the face-to-face encounter,” Hrayr Basmajian, MD, orthopedic surgeon at Pomona (Calif.) Valley Hospital Medical Center, told Becker’s. “We are currently attempting to determine if this potential can be attained. We are trialing and using HIPAA-compliant AI scribes in the office and attempting to build systems that can complete the entire encounter documentation. We have tried to use AI-like bots to assist in authorization, albeit unsuccessfully; hopefully, efforts in the near future will address this hard point for practices.”
They are also using the technology for ambient listening. “Yes, I am currently using artificial intelligence in my practice every day by using an AI-powered scribe technology. It is a comprehensive tool that allows me to use an ambient listening device, which helps to streamline the patient encounter and generate office notes in an accurate and efficient way at a much lower cost than with the use of a traditional scribe,” Jason Brustein, DO, orthopedic surgeon at Resurgens Orthopaedics in Woodstock, Ga., told Becker’s. “It has given me back a tremendous amount of time and is seamlessly integrated into the electronic medical record, and allows for customization with macros and other options, which makes it very appealing across all musculoskeletal platforms.”
Practices are also using AI to predict patient outcomes. New York City-based Hospital for Special Surgery researchers found that artificial intelligence may help orthopedic surgeons predict how patients will react after joint replacement surgery.
Spine surgeons
Spine surgeons are beginning to use AI to do several human tasks, including eliminating the need for scribes. “To continue to decrease costs, it is possible that hospitals use artificial intelligence to reduce costs. There are many areas where artificial intelligence can be used to reduce costs,” Yu-Po Lee, MD, spine surgeon at UCI Health in Orange, Calif., told Becker’s. “Examples would be in record keeping and eliminating the use of scribes and transcriptions for record keeping. Other areas where artificial intelligence can be used may be for screening patients to help facilitate access to care. For example, many new patient visits may be eliminated by having them go to physical therapy prior to having the initial visit. Artificial intelligence programs may be a potential first visit screen for many patients.”
In spinal deformity, algorithms have been developed to accurately inform the surgeon in real time of the risk and benefit of a particular procedure for a specific patient. Other algorithms are being built to suggest the ideal alignment parameters for a specific patient based on their unique anatomy, and devices such as patient-specific rods have been designed to help surgeons achieve these goals.
“As outcomes from these surgeries are collected and added to the datasets, machine learning allows the algorithm to become even more accurate,” David Kaye, MD, of Philadelphia-based Rothman Orthopaedic Institute, told Becker’s. “In a drive to improve patient outcomes, AI allows for assimilation of big data and interpretation in a meaningful and trainable way. These tools will become an increasingly important part of the preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative management of our patients, and may allow safer, more effective and more cost-efficient surgery moving forward.”
Spinal deformity procedures are typically larger and more complex cases that are performed for patients who are experiencing significant pain and contribute to a difficult quality of life.
“We don’t want to undertake these larger surgeries without really being granular in guiding our patients about what to expect and how to achieve those corrections intraoperatively,” Saad Chaudhary, MD, of New York City-based Mount Sinai Health System, told Becker’s. “When we place all these parameters about patients, such as their disease status, their bone quality, their specifics and spine needs, into an algorithm which uses AI technology, we hope we can better predict and better effectuate a good, effective treatment option for them.”
Cardiologists
The Los Angeles-based Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai found that artificial intelligence can detect an abnormal heart rhythm in people not yet showing symptoms, while researchers at New York City-based Mount Sinai developed an artificial intelligence model that interprets electrocardiogram as language. In addition, East Lansing-based Michigan State University is one of 20 global sites using artificial intelligence to generate a “real-time” image of the patient’s body with X-rays during surgery.
In May, Nashville, Tenn.-based Ascension St. Thomas began utilizing egnite’s CardioCare technology, an AI-powered platform designed to enhance cardiovascular care. The platform helps physicians identify at-risk patients earlier, aiming to reduce deaths, strokes and hospitalizations. It also facilitates timely referrals to specialists for conditions like valvular disease, atrial fibrillation and heart failure while prioritizing life-saving treatments. Furthermore, it ensures patients with critical cardiovascular conditions receive care consistent with established medical guidelines.
AI is being used to identify and diagnose many different heart conditions, sometimes before they can be detected by physicians. “AI is now being increasingly used in coronary artery disease for risk assessment, for diagnosis and for treatment planning. It offers potential for earlier, simpler and more accurate analysis of patient data using imaging. It has been shown in studies to lead to improved patient outcomes,” imaging cardiologist Vasvi Singh, MD, told Becker’s.
Rural communities are often underserved compared to their urban counterparts, but AI and new screening technologies are changing the narrative. HeartSense, a nonprofit community organization, is using digital stethoscopes and AI to screen for pathologic murmurs in patients who do not have easy access to a primary care physician, leading to earlier detection and improved outcomes.
Gastroenterologists
Studies presented at Digestive Disease Week included some focused on the quality and empathy of AI responses versus those from physicians related to patient questions about gastrointestinal cancers. In the studies, ChatGPT outperformed physicians in the quality and empathy of responses to questions asked by patients.
The American Gastroenterological Association released new clinical guidelines on the use of AI in colonoscopies. While the organization did not explicitly recommend the use of AI, the AGA found that the technology can enhance the detection of colorectal polyps. At this point, it is still not clear how effectively AI can prevent colorectal cancer.
Until now, physicians have mostly been using AI in the workplace for administrative support and patient pre-screenings. “Artificial intelligence has become part of our practice. We’ve deployed an AI visual interface during colonoscopy, which can help detect precancerous lesions. Coming soon, we’ll use AI dictation for clinic visits and hope to use AI to scour our incoming queue to flag ‘high-risk’ referrals to bring them to the top of the list for scheduling purposes,” Omar Khokhar, MD, gastroenterologist and partner at Illinois Gastro Health in Bloomington told Becker’s.
Ophthalmologists
Teams from Boston-based providers New England Eye Center and Tufts Medical Center began using deep-learning technology to see if such technology can be used in ophthalmology.
Investigators discovered the deep-learning model was able to quantify intraretinal fluid pockets at a rate similar to human performance. Further testing of the model is required, but if it proves successful, the model “could be transformative” because of the specialty’s need for outpatient ancillary testing.
Anesthesiologists
Anesthesiologists are hopeful that AI may play a role in reducing staffing issues in the specialty. “Burnout remains one of the greatest threats to the specialty and the medical workforce as a whole. The solution isn’t just better staffing — it’s rethinking how and where we work. Flexible scheduling models, telemedicine for preop/postop assessments, and AI-assisted charting could reduce nonclinical burdens. The groups that successfully balance workforce engagement with high-quality care will have a serious competitive advantage,” Matthew Hulse, MD, chief of the division of critical care medicine at Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, told Becker’s.
Dr. Hulse also believes that anesthesiologists will soon be able to use AI to optimize decision making. “AI and automation won’t replace anesthesiologists, but they will become essential tools for optimizing perioperative decision-making. Predictive analytics will refine hemodynamic management, while AI-driven workflow efficiencies will help us do more with less — without compromising patient care. The real challenge will be integrating these tools seamlessly without adding cognitive overload,” he told Becker’s.
“Advancing IT integration, supported by machine learning and other AI technology, is going to fundamentally change how we manage patients minute-to-minute in the operating room. This will free our hands and minds to advance care in other ways for the benefit of our patients, including even more hands-on support of sicker patients, as well as novel procedures,” Richard Dutton, MD, anesthesiologist and chief quality officer for U.S. Anesthesia Partners, told Becker’s.
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