AI as Assistant, Not Job Killer?

Cardiologist Michelle O'Donoghue and ACC CIO Ami Bhatt discuss how to use artificial intelligence to the benefit of your practice, and why it’s unlikely to replace the clinician just yet.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/ai-assistant-not-job-killer-2025a100024x?src=soc_yt

--TRANSCRIPT--
Michelle L. O'Donoghue, MD, MPH: Hi. This is Dr Michelle O'Donoghue, reporting for Medscape. Joining me today to talk about artificial intelligence (AI) and possible implications in healthcare is Dr Ami Bhatt, who is the chief innovation officer at the American College of Cardiology. Thanks for joining me, Ami.

Ami B. Bhatt, MD: Thanks so much for having me.

O'Donoghue: Your background is interesting because you trained in adult congenital heart disease and practiced in that space for many years. That was before assuming this role as chief innovation officer. What drew you to that particular position?

From Telemedicine to Generative AI
Bhatt: It's always nice to be able to draw a line once you're looking back. You never know what that line's going to look like looking forward. Adult congenital heart disease is a great field subspecialty.

We had young patients who, at the time, were using FaceTime to talk to their family and friends and oftentimes didn't live in a big city near a tertiary institution. They actually started asking me, "Hey doc, can't we just FaceTime? If we're just going over my results, why am I coming in?" All valid questions.

When the Mass General started to use telemedicine for stroke care, trying to really help institutions that weren't as familiar with it get patients care faster, I asked if I could have a license to try it out and they were kind enough to let me.

I started to experiment in it 15 years ago. In 2013, I started — every Wednesday — a telemedicine clinic for my patients with congenital heart disease who lived far away. It was my patients who drove me and led me to it.

Then you realize, I don't have hands on this patient. Very quickly, as a young cardiologist, you think, How do I get an EKG out there and get it sent to me? How do I get images? What does a stethoscope do for me? In adult congenital, the sounds of the heart are so important.

Then I started foraying into digital health before it became a thing, in very early versions, because I realized that I needed more than just their face and their words from their home; I sometimes would need data.

O'Donoghue: What got me interested in this space was also just a simple conversation I was having with the fellows and the junior faculty, about how they're using AI in their lives today, including some of these tools like ChatGPT. I have to say that I was just completely ignorant about most of what is currently available out there.

Maybe just start with the basics because I think when many people hear the term "AI," they don't really know what it means. It's really a very broad term. What do we mean in terms of healthcare implications?

Bhatt: AI has been around for a long time, in fact, in medicine. Radiology is probably the most common place, and that's a form of AI machine learning. The most common example is to take an x-ray and show a ton of x-rays to the computer: "This is a pneumonia. This is also a pneumonia. This is a pneumonia." Eventually, the computer can say, "I can identify a pneumonia." Then you can do that with whatever you'd like.

The more modern one that you just mentioned, the generative AI, had not been as easily accessible to us until more recently. It's really taken off because of the user-friendly nature, if you will. I'll give an example.

I went out to Worcester, Massachusetts, where a nonprofit, Girls Inc., teaches STEM. I was going there to teach 5th graders about AI. As we started working together, I said, "Let's do a demo." I was typing and one of the girls came up to me — one who hadn't been paying attention, by the way — and she said, "Would you mind, doctor, if I did this?"

She sat down, and the way she could generate questions from a ChatGPT, the way her brain worked, the way the kids responded to her, they were really facile.

I love that you mentioned what you're learning from the fellows, residents, and med students because that generation is learning things far faster. I will say the fifth graders — I have a sixth grader at home — they're native to this, right? This is intuitive to them. This is how they think.

I think the future generations are going to have an even easier time using AI, for a variety of these things, than we do. When I think about it, I think about three areas for healthcare. I think about administrative uses, and that's where this generative AI, or large language models, are really helpful.

Transcript in its entirety can be found by clicking here:
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/ai-assistant-not-job-killer-2025a100024x?src=soc_yt