The Impact of AI in Healthcare
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Show Notes:
In this special Milken Institute Global Conference episode of Mission Matters, Adam Torres welcomes Jesse Ehrenfeld, the 178th President of the American Medical Association. Jesse shares his first impressions as a first-time attendee, highlighting the accessibility to high-profile leaders and the extraordinary conversations about society’s future. The discussion covers the transformative potential of AI in healthcare, where Jesse emphasizes that AI will not replace physicians, but those who use AI will outpace those who don’t. He provides real-world examples of AI’s current and potential impact on the healthcare system, particularly in enhancing diagnostic tools, managing chronic diseases, and improving overall patient care. This episode is a deep dive into the intersection of technology and medicine, offering valuable insights for anyone interested in the future of healthcare.
About Jesse Ehrenfeld
Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH, board-certified in both anesthesiology and clinical informatics, was the 178th president of the American Medical Association for the year 2023-2024.
About American Medical Association
Founded in 1847, the American Medical Association (AMA) is the largest and only national association that convenes 190+ state and specialty medical societies and other critical stakeholders. Throughout history, the AMA has always followed its mission: to promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health.
As the physicians’ powerful ally in patient care, the AMA delivers on this mission by representing physicians with a unified voice in courts and legislative bodies across the nation, removing obstacles that interfere with patient care, leading the charge to prevent chronic disease and confront public health crises, and driving the future of medicine to tackle the biggest challenges in health care and training the leaders of tomorrow.
The AMA’s system of governance and policy making include the board of trustees, House of Delegates, executive vice president, councils and committees, special sections, and AMA senior leadership and staff.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on BR Guest to apply.
All right, today I have the pleasure of we welcoming Jesse Feld, who is the hundred and 78th. President of the American Medical Association. And just so everybody knows, this is part of our Milken Global Conference coverage series where we highlight and feature some of the top participants and attendees from the conference.
First thing, first, Jesse, welcome to the show, Thanks for having me. Excited about our conversation today. Jesse, so the Milken Global Conference for us at Mission Matters. Now I’ve been going three, going on four. It might be three or four years now, maybe. I don’t know. Time flies when you’re having fun.
That being said, it’s one of my favorite events and conferences of the year. What for yourself, have you been in the past? This is your first time. Like, give us a little bit of, you know, your background with the conference. This is my first time at the Global Conference. I’ve been to other Milken Institute events and I will tell you it was just phenomenal to hear from so many thought leaders.
Taking it all in was an experience. Yeah. It was hard to describe to my kids and my husband where I was, what I was doing. Being able to hear and learn from so many bright minds and folks who are out there. Yeah. what is the first time attendee? I love when I get, you know, get to see things through the eyes of the first time attendee.
What was any highlights, whether it was at the programming, the setup, the layout, anything like any highlights. You care, that you care to bring out. It’s unusual to be at a meeting with so many high profile, high impact leaders in their fields. And to be able to talk to them to be able to have accessibility to be in a room with Dr.
Oz in Jill Biden at the same time and be able to actually have some conversation was extraordinary for lots of reasons, including the fact that the Global Conference brings together. Folks from every political persuasion, every industry to have important deep conversations about what the future of society can be.
Wow. Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. And I look at things and I’m like, and you’re just walking down. You’re like, in this case, I’m like, oh, there goes Deepak Chopra. Oh, there goes so, and so there goes. I’m like, whoa. This is like, okay, that’s cool. Just hanging out. Right? I’m like, that’s, that’s just a, a lot of.
Fun. And not only that, but I feel like that for me at least, the, some of the programming, like I don’t always get to, you know, pop in on sessions where I’m not dealing with a certain expertise or not. Like, so it’s been described to me as like brain candy. Like, you’re, like you, not only do you get to, you know, go further into your, your niche or whatever you care to know about, but you get to be on the cutting edge of a lot of different industries and kind of like choose what you wanna get and understand that the content that’s curated.
Did. It’s gonna be top, not and notch individuals like there. It’s vetted. Yeah. And what was really great about that I was asked to talk about the impact of AI and in healthcare, and I’m sure we’ll talk about that today, but to hear about the impact of AI across. So many different industries as we’re entering into this moment of tremendous societal transition.
And that’s really what’s going on right now. Was helpful to just get some context and grounding for the space that I spend most of my time in. Mm-hmm. Which is obviously the healthcare delivery system. Yeah. Before we get into the impact of ai, which we’ll definitely delve into, I don’t wanna assume that everyone listening, you know, is familiar with and, knows about the, you know, the mission and directives of the American Medical Association.
So may maybe start there with a little bit of an overview please. The American Medical Association, the largest, most influential group of physicians across the nation, founded in 1847, believe it or not. Yeah. And I have the humbling honor of, serving as the 178th presidents. And the mission is pretty simple, right?
To advance the art and science of medicine in the better of public health. And, you know, the a MA got its start stamping out snake oil and quackery back in the 18 hundreds. And, and sometimes I feel like it’s come full circle with the need to really emphasize the importance of, of evidence-based medicine.
Understanding how we develop the best scientific breakthroughs and make sure that those reach the American public. So we do a lot of work in that space. Mm-hmm. Hmm. how is this conver? Where do you wanna start with this? I know everybody’s talking about ai. It doesn’t matter what the field is.
It doesn’t matter what you’re doing. Like, is it gonna replace the, A, B, C, the X, Y, z, everybody. Right? I got, I’ll just throw it out there. Will AI replace physicians? how does that all, what’s the interplay there? Yeah. The, short answer is, no, but, while AI won’t replace physicians, physicians who use AI will replace those who don’t.
And, AI is a tool, right? You know, I wouldn’t go into an operating room. I’m an anesthesiologist. I’m gonna see patients tomorrow. You know, there’s certain tools and, things and devices and medications that I would just never, I. Not have with me when I’m providing care for patients, right?
Mm-hmm. Very simple routine things. Pulse oximeters to measure oxygen level. the ventilator systems that we use that have been built up and developed and devised and iterated over the last three, four decades. AI is gonna be one of those in indispensable tools. It’s very clear that that’s happening in many places.
It’s going to happen in healthcare. I don’t think AI is going to replace. Doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, dentists, pharmacists, anybody. But they’re gonna upgrade us. They’re gonna make us more capable. And we so desperately need not just better diagnostic capabilities, but we need to expand capacity.
And, and I think, you know, everybody in the country knows that we have a healthcare system in crisis. You know, I had another call from a cousin today who’s complaining that. You know, it’s eight months to get in to see a new primary care doctor. You know, and that was after spending three weeks trying to find somebody that would actually take him on.
Mm-hmm. Those experiences are common. That is the situation that we’re in. We just don’t have the people, the capacity to scale the way to actually. Deliver care using the current approaches, we’re gonna have to lean into technology. We’re gonna have to have these tools that can let us do more with the same sort of human capital.
And that’s where AI can be so incredibly powerful. It will change the work. It will change how we deliver care. And I spend a lot of my time thinking about how can the delivery system pivot and be reimagined to benefit from these tools to make sure that every American gets what they need. Yeah.
Can you I mean you can take this in any direction you want, but for those that haven’t really considered AI currently, like current use of AI and what it’s doing in the healthcare system any, and you don’t have to give any specific name or, you know, hospital or anything like that, or doctor, but any, any use cases that you’ve seen for AI where you’re like, man, we’re on the right path.
Like, this is what I’m talking about. this is good. Like, this is good. So there’s, two places that AI is in healthcare right now and it is rapidly exploding. Mm-hmm. So, you know, there’s survey data. In 2023, about three 38% of US physicians were using ai. I. It more than doubled a year later, 66% last year of US physicians using AI in their practice is a huge jump.
Right? Yeah. So we’re seeing overnight this instant uptake, and there’s two areas, right? There’s the sort of like completely unsexy administrative crap. Mm-hmm. That’s starting to happen. That’s very much needed for our system. Yeah. Dealing, you know, who wants to be, you know, spend 20 minutes waiting on hold to talk to a receptionist to actually schedule an appointment, right?
Yeah. Systems that can automate those things. You know, I, can text my, plumber to get an appointment tomorrow at the time I want, you know, but I can’t, you know, do that with my doctor’s office. Those things are happening. Those sorts of like, you know, sort of interfaces mm-hmm. Are coming online, you know, scheduling issues, billing issues supply chain issues, prior authorization issues.
Like the administrative things that need to happen at the interface of healthcare. Mm-hmm. The patients are starting to see and expect are coming online very, very, very quickly. There’s also clinical ai and, and this is, Having slower adoption. And, and when you talk about AI in healthcare, this is what people’s minds go to.
They think about, well, where’s the tool that provides the diagnosis? Mm-hmm. Where’s the tool that tells me what kind of medicine I, need? And those things are coming and we’re seeing rapid, rapid adoption in radiology is, is probably the easiest example for people to think about. And so there are now companies that have models that can.
Instantly provide very helpful interpretations of scans and films and x-rays and MRIs. And that’s important, not just because they can operate in some cases with higher you know, accuracy, but because they never, I. Take a break. They never go to sleep. They’re always available in the middle of the night.
And, and I, can tell you, I, know of case after case, after case where hospitals that have implemented these radiology systems that are supporting the radiologists, supporting the care teams have, found things instantly that saved lives. Mm-hmm. And as opposed to having to wait 20, 30 minutes, an hour, two hours a day for somebody to review a scan in detail, these systems can.
Instantly, as soon as the data comes off, the scanner detect where there’s a major problem and a patient needs to have some sort of intervention. Those kinds of places are, are really exciting as I think about the adoption of clinical ai. And we’re gonna see that in, in every specialty in all sorts of different ways.
and what it means for a physician is it means I, can change my work. I, I, can do things differently. I can provide a different value and hopefully I can actually look at my patient more and do less typing on the computer and actually restore the humanity that in a lot of cases, gets lost from the day-to-day practice of medicine.
Yeah, I, can see that. And I feel like like if we think about what this all leads to and what, what the goal is, right? If any advance it’s gonna be better patient care, right. Like better outcomes. Like that’s the goal. Abso absolutely. And, and I’ll give you a, an example in, the, eye space. Mm-hmm.
So actually the, the first FDA. Autonomous AI approved system for diagnosis is in the diabetic retinopathy space. And so I’m sure a lot of your listeners know that if, if you have diabetes, you’re supposed to get an annual eye exam to look for a condition called diabetic retinopathy, which is a disease of the eye vessels and it can lead to blindness.
If blindness is obviously a very devastating complication of diabetes and we try to prevent it. So, you know, there are. Millions and millions of Americans who have diabetes. It’s a huge epidemic. It’s a huge problem. We could never make enough ophthalmologists to do screenings for every diabetic patient in America.
Mm-hmm. If there’s just not possible. Interesting. We don’t have that capacity. There is now a machine that’s the size of a glorified microwave. You can put it in a retail clinic, you can put it in a Walmart and somebody with a high school education can put a patient in front of it, and the company has such.
Confidence in the algorithms in the machine. They have liability insurance on the output. Wow. So if something goes wrong, they’re willing to stand up and say, we will take ownership over this. They’re that confident in the device. Now suddenly we can screen theoretically every patient in America. We can screen every patient globally for diabetic retinopathy, and it means that ophthalmologists no longer have to do.
Screening exams, they no longer have to see normal eyeballs. They can just see the patients with the disease where they can actually have an impact, they can change their work. And, and if you think about AI changing the work across every specialty that’s where you can get some real power and add capacity to the healthcare system.
Wow. And and I mean, look, I don’t even know what the numbers like that could be. When you start talking about the all around the world and you think about this is just one use case. How many more are they? Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And when you think about just quality of living, you think about an aging population, you think about the load of of even just on the infrastructure, right?
Like and who knows what’s next that’s coming. We don’t know, right? Yeah. Like nobody expect. Well, we, we, we have an aging population. People are fortunately living longer, but they’re living with more chronic disease.
Yeah, when I was, when I was in training 20 years ago, I, I would, I would see normal, healthy patients with one medication, one disease. I, I, those patients may exist, but I don’t see them. I don’t know where they’ve all gone. Mm-hmm. All of my patients who come in for surgery, it’s long lists of medications, long lists of chronic diseases and conditions that obviously takes just more work to, to manage all around the.
Systems. So and the workforce just hasn’t kept up. You know, we, we’ve opened more medical schools, we’ve opened more nursing schools, we’ve added PA programs but we just haven’t added the human capital to keep up with delivering care in the same way. That’s why the way we deliver care has to change.
Hmm. Amazing. Well, I’ll tell you, this has been a lot of fun having you on the show today. If somebody’s thanks for having me watching, or Absolutely. If somebody’s watching or listening to this and they wanna follow up and they wanna learn more about what the American Medical Association’s doing or any of your work what’s the best way for people to connect, Jesse?
They can go to the AMA website, ama assn.org or they can follow me on social media X at Dr. Jesse md in all the usual places. Wonderful. And for anybody listening just so you know, we’ll definitely put those links in the show notes so you can just click on ’em and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way on your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Jesse, thanks again for coming on the show. Thanks for having me.
