Artificial Intelligence in Medicine

AI and Medicine

It is fascinating to witness the worldwide revolution in healthcare AI (Artificial intelligence) is about to create.

What a relief for doctors who have been overwhelmed by keeping up with the demands of electronic medical records, spending more time gathering data and writing charts than interacting with their patients.
As a Functional Medicine physician, I am all about having quality time with my patients, because, most of the time, it is easy to make a diagnosis with all the test modalities we have. The important part is finding the appropriate treatment and being able to tell how well the patient will respond to it.

WHAT AI CAN DO

AI will be able to make a diagnosis and prescribe a treatment based on data processing. AI will synthesize all the patient history and test results and come up with a diagnosis that will correspond to a specific treatment that is designed to work for a majority of patients.
This will help tremendously in urgent care and emergency medicine, in other words, it will be a great way to initially diagnose and treat patients.

WHAT WILL DOCTORS DO

So what are doctors going to do then if AI can take these tasks over?
I believe this is the major shift we are going to see which will be great for patients and also for doctors because they are finally going to be able to step back into their “healer” shoes.
The main reason why we become doctors is that we want to help people overcome suffering and we have a sense of fulfillment when our patients regain health. In today's medical world, many doctors feel exhausted and disempowered, and they have no time or energy left to appreciate the difference they are making in their patients' lives.

We currently have an epidemic of burnout in health providers at all levels that has been increasing over the past ten years. It has become a major issue both in hospitals and private practices and we need to protect the mental and physical health of physicians and nurses so they can keep providing good care.

A HEALTHIER HEALTHCARE

So yes to AI, yes to progress, provided that we understand the limitations of computer-generated systems.
The one thing that has not changed despite all the devices we have at our disposal is that we need human contact in order to be physically and mentally healthy. More than ever, we can see the importance of connecting in the presence of each other because, since the pandemic, we have witnessed a significant increase in mental illnesses and psychiatric medication prescriptions. We know that the stress of going through uncertain times was a big trigger, yet isolation seems to trigger more depression and anxiety along with an addictive pattern to social media.
I personally like social media, they are a lot of fun…however, they can absorb us into non-reality and make us lose the true human connection we need through “physical vibration”. We thrive on each other's "healing energies"; we can soothe each other with a hand touch, or even just by our presence to another.

Here is the point that I want to make about the healing potential that doctors will have to embrace in order to efficiently collaborate with artificial intelligence. They will have to tap into their strong sense of intuition to confirm that the medical report from AI is actually the right one for their patient, and take the time to offer their healing presence to their patients. They will especially play a major role in PREVENTING illness.
For that, they will have to bring their own health to a higher level so they can VIBRATE HEALTH for their patients. Holistic medicine has to become part of our conventional model of medicine, essentially because healthcare providers need it.

HEALING THROUGH VISUALIZATION

Although, I believe that we are all born with the ability to heal and convey healing to others, doctors have integrated through years of study and practice a substantial knowledge of the human body and its very detailed and complicated functions. This has given them a mental picture of what is happening inside the body that they can see in each of their patients. They can literally see the movie that is going on inside your body. Not many physicians have thought in those terms of their ability to visualize a health issue in their patient's body and how they can direct their innate healing energy through their words, their compassion, and their touch.

Again, this is a whole new era in healthcare where we are about to see the best of our human potential.

Dr. Evee

Evelyne Leone, DO, FAARM, ABBARM