The Future of Digital Health: AI, Data, and Telemedicine Innovations — Transcript

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1. 0:00Well, first of all, thanks very much
2. 0:02indeed for chatting to us today.
3. 0:04Delighted to be here. Thanks.
4. 0:05So, we're all we're all digital health
5. 0:07people these days, aren't we? We're all
6. 0:08wearing our watches, we've all got our
7. 0:10devices, but what is digital health?
8. 0:12I mean, digital health is using digital
9. 0:14tools to deliver health care, and you
10. 0:16know, it started with electronic health
11. 0:17record, now it's AI tools and digital
12. 0:19apps and all sorts of things, and
13. 0:21there's a lot of promise, certainly for
14. 0:23digital health, and I think we're going
15. 0:24to see more and more promising tools
16. 0:26coming in the marketplace.
17. 0:27What are some of the biggest
18. 0:28innovations? What are some of the
19. 0:29biggest changes that we've seen in
20. 0:31health care and particularly in
21. 0:33psychiatric health care?
22. 0:35Well, certainly as digital health
23. 0:37changes the landscape, you know,
24. 0:39telemedicine has exploded, and because
25. 0:43of the pandemic, we probably had 10
26. 0:44years of progress in 6 months through
27. 0:46the adoption and use of telehealth in
28. 0:48particular, and that has been a
29. 0:50game-changer for psychiatry. It's
30. 0:52improved access, it's improved
31. 0:53accessibility. In the US, we've got
32. 0:56pandemic flexibility extensions through
33. 0:58the end of calendar 2024, and in my role
34. 1:00as president of the AMA, we're
35. 1:01continuing to push for those
36. 1:02flexibilities to be permanently extended
37. 1:05so that patients can have access to
38. 1:06telepsychiatry and other telehealth
39. 1:08platforms, hopefully for the long run.
40. 1:11So, what about data? I mean, we must be
41. 1:13pretty good now at using data, storing
42. 1:16data. So, so how could this data come
43. 1:18into this?
44. 1:19We've gotten better. We're not there
45. 1:20yet. Obviously, a lot of the algorithms,
46. 1:23the promising AI tools, are all fed and
47. 1:25rely on data, and having data standards,
48. 1:29making sure the data is interoperable,
49. 1:31is a core piece of the AMA's digital
50. 1:33strategy to make sure that these tools
51. 1:35actually work for patients and
52. 1:36physicians. But even if you look at an
53. 1:38important space like the social
54. 1:40determinants of health, we talk about it
55. 1:42all the time, but the data standards
56. 1:44around how do you know if a patient has
57. 1:46housing insecurity? How do you know if
58. 1:48this a patient has access to
59. 1:50refrigeration for medications that they
60. 1:51might need at home. Right now, we still
61. 1:53don't have clear, consistent
62. 1:55documentation fields in our electronic
63. 1:57health records. So, we're working with
64. 1:59the Gravity Project as one way to try to
65. 2:01bring the standards forward to improve
66. 2:03how we collect data and then ultimately
67. 2:04how we can use it.
68. 2:06Well, the other issues with data though
69. 2:07isn't it safeguarding data? Is that a
70. 2:09big issue?
71. 2:10You know, there's a lot of concern
72. 2:11particularly with the huge cyber attack
73. 2:13on United Healthcare Change Healthcare
74. 2:15which probably a third of all Americans
75. 2:17healthcare data has been exposed about
76. 2:20how do we truly keep patient privacy and
77. 2:23how do we make sure that we protect from
78. 2:24cybersecurity? There is no answer to
79. 2:26that and I think we all have a lot of
80. 2:27anxiety to make sure that we protect
81. 2:29particularly sensitive details from a
82. 2:31patient's health record.
83. 2:33What about AI? Everybody every
84. 2:34conference every meeting I go to
85. 2:36everybody wants to talk about AI. So,
86. 2:38how does AI affect digital health?
87. 2:40We are at the peak of the hype curve. We
88. 2:43are in an AI era. It is everywhere. I
89. 2:45can't go an hour without asking about
90. 2:47ChatGPT or large language models. Um AI
91. 2:51is going to be helpful. It is used in
92. 2:5340% of practices in the US today, but
93. 2:56it's not the sexy stuff. It's supply
94. 2:58chain management. It's billing. It's
95. 2:59scheduling. It's those back end office
96. 3:01operations where if there is a mistake,
97. 3:04it's not the end of the world. The
98. 3:05clinical applications, the therapy
99. 3:08chatbots, uh the prescribing decision
100. 3:11support tools, those things are coming.
101. 3:13What they will mean for practice, I
102. 3:14don't know, but I do know one thing. AI
103. 3:16will not replace psychiatrists, but
104. 3:18psychiatrists who use AI will replace
105. 3:20those who don't.
106. 3:21It's a pretty bold statement though to
107. 3:22say that AI won't replace psychiatrists.
108. 3:25How do we know that?
109. 3:26So, it's clear to me that when I'm sick,
110. 3:29when I'm hurting, I want a person
111. 3:32to be able to touch my shoulder, to be
112. 3:34on the other end of directing my care.
113. 3:38And computers will never replace that.
114. 3:40We know that there's something so
115. 3:41foundational about the profession and
116. 3:43the practice of medicine, it's about the
117. 3:45humanity that we bring in the care that
118. 3:48we deliver.
119. 3:49A last question is I Now, I to encourage
120. 3:50you to look into a crystal ball, Jesse,
121. 3:53and I want you to tell me what do you
122. 3:54see are the biggest innovations
123. 3:55happening over maybe the next 5 years?
124. 3:57Scalability. So, we have a healthcare
125. 4:00workforce crisis. There's a crisis in
126. 4:02psychiatry, there's a crisis in
127. 4:04behavioral health, there's a crisis in
128. 4:06all of healthcare. 83 million Americans
129. 4:08do not have access to primary care. 125
130. 4:11million Americans do not have access to
131. 4:13behavioral health services. The only way
132. 4:16we're going to solve this is not by
133. 4:17opening a thousand new medical schools.
134. 4:19That will never happen. It's only by
135. 4:21leaning into technology to scale the
136. 4:23capacity of our existing care teams by
137. 4:25augmenting and boosting our
138. 4:27capabilities.
139. 4:28Well, thank you very much for joining us
140. 4:29today. Fascinating stuff. Thank you.
141. 4:31Thanks.