What We're Reading

Health Policy Journal Club, July 2023

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Medicine

The health policy journal club is an interdisciplinary, inter-professional group convened monthly by the Farley Health Policy Center to discuss timely topics in health policy. A curated selection of high-yield articles provides the basis for discussion. Past topics have included income inequality and health, professionalism in medicine, patients as consumers, and adjusting payment for measures of social risk. This page presents the reading list from the most recent journal club.

Readings

Intro to AI and primary care 

  1. Lin S. A clinician's guide to artificial intelligence (AI): why and how primary care should lead the health care AI revolution. JABFM. 2022;35:175-184.
  2. Optional reading: Upshaw TL, Craig-Neil A, Macklin J et al. Priorities for artificial intelligence applications in primary care: a Canadian deliberative dialogue with patients, providers and health system leaders. JABFM 2023;36:210-220. See Appendix 2, starting with (3. Artificial Intelligence: An overview) on page E8 for a primer on AI. 

ChatGPT 

  1. Lee P, Bubeck S, Petro J. Benefits, limits and risks of GPT-4 as an AI chatbot for medicine. 2023;388:13.
  2. Hailu R, Beam A, Mehrotra A. ChatGPT-assisted diagnosis: is the future suddenly here? STATnews. February 13, 2023
  3. Ayers JW, Poliak A, Dredze M et al. Comparing physician and artificial intelligence chatbot responses to patient questions posted to a public social media forum. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2023;183(6):589-596.

AI and equity 

  1. d'Elia A, Gabbay M, Rodgers S et al. Artificial intelligence and health inequities in primary care: a systematic scoping review and framework. Family Medicine and Community Health. 2022;10:e001670. 

The future of medicine 

  1. Heath I, Montori VM. Responding to the crisis of care. BMJ. 2023;380:464.
  2.  Will AI Eventually Replace Doctors? KelloggInsight. February 1, 2023. 

Summary

As Dr. Lin writes in the first article, artificial intelligence (AI) is the future that is already here. These articles describe the ways AI is being used in medicine now, envision how it might be used in the future, identify pitfalls and ethical concerns to address, and speculate about the role of physicians in a new era of healthcare.


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    Physician Workforce and Supply

    Aug 1, 2021

    Health Policy Journal Club, August 2021

    Physician Workforce and Supply

    The health policy journal club is an interdisciplinary, inter-professional group convened monthly by the Farley Health Policy Center to discuss timely topics in health policy. A curated selection of high-yield articles provides the basis for discussion. Past topics have included income inequality and health, professionalism in medicine, patients as consumers, and adjusting payment for measures of social risk. This page presents the reading list from the most recent journal club. 

    Readings

    IHS Markit Ltd. The Complexities of Physician Supply and Demand: Projections From 2019 to 2034. Washington, DC: AAMC; 2021. 

    1. Introduction, Updated Projections, and Conclusions - pages 1-18 and 58-60 
    2. COVID-19 Physician Workforce Implications and Evolving Care Delivery System Demand Implications - pages 19-23 and 47-52   
    3. Providers Required if US Achieved Equity in Health Care Utilization and Geographic Distribution of Physician Demand - pages 24-26 and 53-57 

    Pediatric subspecialty workforce supply and demand 

    1. Catenaccio E, Rochlin JM, Simon HK. Association of Lifetime Earning Potential and Workforce Distribution Among Pediatric Subspecialists. JAMA Pediatrics. 2021. 
    2. Freed GL. The pediatric subspecialty workforce is more complex that meets the eye. JAMA Pediatrics. 2021. 
    3. Keller DM, Davis MM, Freed GL. Access to pediatric subspecialty care for children and youth: possible shortages and potential solutions. Pediatric Research. 2020;87:1151-1152.

    Context

    This report from the Association of American Medical Colleges argues that the projected demand for physicians exceeds supply, with a projected shortage between 37,800 and 124,000 physicians overall - including 17,800-48,000 primary care physicians - by 2034. At journal club, attendees discussed controversy around these estimates: other analyses have suggested that the rate of producing physicians is exceeding population growth and that the United States has a problem of maldistribution rather than a physician shortage. In pediatrics, maldistribution of subspecialists is an issue in particular. Funding for graduate medical education is not designed to address population needs and contributes to the problems of physician maldistribution. Programs for loan repayment like the National Health Service Corps that require working in an underserved area are valuable to shift workforce distribution.