Dr Bibbins-Domingo: Let’s talk now about what AI is going to do for patients. We have our computers that we carry around with us in our phones and in our watches, and if we’re interested in more information about our health, those sensors are collecting data about us all the time. I’m a primary care clinician. My patients are bringing me that data all the time and they’re asking me to help make sense of that. So tell us what’s on the horizon and how might we think about these really wonderful ways in which these incredible sensors and other data collection tools will become better integrated into clinical care.
Dr Kheterpal: I think the most important thing that the modern sensors and wearables offer us is really understanding the patient’s daily lived experience. I think we can all agree that even the most conscientious clinician struggles to truly understand in that 15-minute primary care visit, where you see the patient every 6 months, when they say, “I’m feeling tired,” what does that actually mean? These symptoms that are coming to us in episodic moments, and we have episodic assessments of them, but they’re lived throughout the day and throughout the 6-month or 1-year period. And the beauty of the sensors we now have is that there’s potentially an objective way to get a sense of how that patient’s doing.
Read more on Tapping AI’s Strengths—From Operating Room Safety to Wearable Device Interpretation via JAMA.
Family Medicine Residency Site: Abbotsford-Mission 