Being a Doctor Will Never Be the Same After A.I. (Rachael Bedard, 9/25/26, The New York Times)
This summer, I used an A.I. tool — a platform called OpenEvidence, accessible only to health care providers — to help me choose antibiotics for one patient and to interpret unusual bloodwork for another. A.I. reminded me to consider migraines when a woman presented with dizziness. I chatted with the large language model about treatments for an older man with lung cancer. I have also consulted it about a rash on my father’s back, my son’s fever, a friend’s arm pain and my own difficulty sleeping.
I practice primary care, where every malady is my business. Almost every month, I’m confronted with a complaint or syndrome that I don’t recognize. I’m confident in my mastery over what doctors do — history-taking, reasoning, communicating. I’m less confident about my continued mastery of an ever-evolving universe of facts. Now, the chatbot in my pocket reassures me that I will always know enough, or have access to the cloud-based intelligence that generally does.
The wealthy and powerful tend to insist on seeing the most senior physician, who was also, hilariously, trained longest ago.