Oct. 13 -- Next time you visit the doctor, an algorithm might be taking notes for you. Hospitals and clinics in New Mexico and across the country have adopted artificial intelligence programs to record and document patient visits in the hopes of reducing the overwhelming paperwork burdens on burned-out doctors.
At Presbyterian Healthcare Services, Lovelace Health System and the University of New Mexico Health System, doctors use AI ambient listening programs to transcribe appointments. Using the software, doctors are free to step away from behind their computers and can spend more face-to-face time with patients, said Dr. Mel Peralta, a cardiologist and chief medical officer at Lovelace's New Mexico Heart Institute.
"It's great for patients, because they feel more connected with the clinician, and the documentation is actually, I think, more detailed," Peralta said.
A University of New Mexico study this year found what many providers already know: The demand for documenting visits and completing paperwork is oftentimes crushing. One clinician who participated in the study reported spending 10 to 15 minutes on documentation for every 15 to 20 minutes spent with a patient.
"What's been overwhelming in our field has been the administrative burdens on everyone," Peralta said. "They would much rather be actually helping someone who is sometimes in the most vulnerable part of their lives."
A pilot study at Lovelace found the program saved each provider an average of five hours a week in documentation time.
AI is poised to upend hundreds of thousands of jobs. A report from consulting firm McKinsey shows artificial intelligence will profoundly change the workforce across the globe in the coming years. By 2030, the report predicts that 30% of hours worked in the United States could be automated with generative AI.
The initial shock of hearing an algorithm is handling the notes for your doctor's appointment may be hard for some to stomach. Troy Clark, president and CEO of the New Mexico Hospital Association, says the new developments should be welcomed rather than feared.
"I think people get scared off by that futuristic talk of AI," Clark said in a September interview. "It's not replacing doctors and nurses, it's augmenting what they do, and maybe streamlining the administrative burden on what they have."
In practice, the technology has been useful for Dr. Kristy Riniker, vice president of the New Mexico Academy of Family Physicians and a family doctor in Rio Rancho.
Riniker said she likes that the AI program makes her notes much quicker. But since she works for a large health system, the time she used to spend writing notes is now expected to be used for other tasks.
"It means that I'm expected to see more patients, and with more patients, that means there's more phone calls and more labs to review and more paperwork to be done," she said. "So it's more overall work, even if it's just different work."
AI does the job of a medical scribe -- a nonclinical assistant that transcribes patient encounters for medical records, freeing up doctors to focus on care rather than note-taking.
At some hospitals and clinics, AI does the job of a medical scribe, but faster and cheaper. In July, management at Presbyterian told its staff of scribes that the hospital system would not be renewing their contracts, according to Diego Gonzales, a scribe at a PRESNow urgent care clinic in Albuquerque. The announcement came about a year after the clinic began testing an AI ambient listening program, he said.
"From the get-go, we understood that this might be a threat to our job security. So it was always in the back of our minds," Gonzales said.
Scribes are typically young people -- sometimes undergraduates -- looking for an entry-level job in medicine, Gonzales said. And though the pay is low, most scribes are there for the exposure.
"The most important thing that I got out of this job wasn't the money, but it was the experience and the connections with the clinicians," he said.
When he became a scribe, Gonzales said he wanted to be a doctor, but after a few months of working, he became curious about the job of a physician assistant. Two years later, he says he's dedicated to attending physician assistant school.
"That would never have happened if I hadn't been exposed to this job," Gonzales said.
Presbyterian Medical Group President Dr. Darren Shafer said the company was ending its contract with ScribeAmerica, the company employing the workers, "to explore a different model that better supports our providers and gives them more time to focus on patient care."
"This decision is part of our broader efforts to reduce administrative burden and burnout," Shafer said.
Not all clinics have scribes, Peralta said, which he considers a luxury. For many providers, the AI technology is filling a gap for people who have never had scribes in their whole career, he said.
"In the end, I'm always an optimist that technology has always led to more opportunity and the betterment of jobs," Peralta said.
In New Mexico, where health care workers are scarce and providers are stretched thin, the AI technology will lead to better, more efficient work -- and more human connection, Peralta said.
"As it develops, you're going to see an ability to bring back the humanity more and more to medicine," he said. "So you don't have a doctor staring at a computer screen during your 15-minute visit that took you three months to get. No one likes that, including the doctor."