Health IT

Addressing the physician shortage: How AI can help, not replace

Amelia Mercado

Tech

May 27, 2025

The physician shortage in the United States is a real and urgent issue. Projections from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) estimate that by 2034, the nation could face a deficit between 37,800 and 124,000 physicians. Primary care will be particularly affected, with a potential shortfall of up to 48,000 doctors. Rural and underserved communities will likely bear the brunt of the burden.

This shortage stems from multiple …

The silent threat in health care layoffs

Todd Thorsen, MBA

Tech

May 24, 2025

The health care industry rightfully remains vigilant against external cyber threats, with the Director-General of the World Health Organization even labeling file loss from ransomware as potentially “issues of life and death.” Patient safety and the sanctity of confidential health information are paramount—which are also the very reasons health care organizations are prime targets for malicious actors. But as economic headwinds lead to corporate layoffs and government budget cuts dominate …

In medicine and law, professions that society relies upon for accuracy

Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD

Tech

May 20, 2025

Integrity and trust are foundational. But today, that trust is under assault—not from human error, nor negligence, but from the sophisticated but disturbingly unreliable outputs of artificial intelligence (AI). What the media euphemistically calls “AI hallucinations” are not benign mistakes—they are dangerous fabrications, systematically undermining both clinical and legal standards.

As a psychiatrist, I confront the reality of hallucinations regularly. Patients vividly describe voices, visions, and sensations with profound distress. Hallucinations, …

“Think twice, heal once”: Why medical decision-making needs a second opinion from your slower brain (and AI)

Harvey Castro, MD, MBA

Tech

May 19, 2025

Medicine demands fast decisions.

Chest pain in triage. A vague complaint from an elderly patient. A scan with subtle shadows.

But the speed that saves lives can also lead to predictable, systematic errors, especially when we trust our gut too much.

Psychologist Daniel Kahneman taught us that we do not have one mind. We have two.

System 1 is fast, intuitive, and automatic. It makes snap …

AI in mental health: a new frontier for therapy and support

Tim Rubin, PsyD

Conditions

May 16, 2025

The mental health crisis in America continues to intensify. With therapist shortages, high costs, and long waitlists, there are millions of people without access to therapy. As a cognitive scientist who analyzed therapy transcripts in grad school and now develops AI mental health applications, I’ve observed artificial intelligence emerging as a complementary solution to these accessibility challenges.

Why fearing AI is really about fearing ourselves

Bhargav Raman, MD, MBA

Tech

May 16, 2025

I was at a conference of physician executives and physician founders recently, and there were many stimulating conversations. The idea that AI could see us as a threat and eventually destroy us came up in various forms, often as a half-serious joke. Half-serious jokes are serious concerns. Indeed, astrophysicist Martin Rees predicted that humanity had a 50 percent chance of destroying itself this century due to technological advances and threats, …

Rethinking patient payments: Why billing is the new frontline of patient care [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

May 13, 2025

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Health care executive Blake Walker discusses his article, “From caregivers to collectors: Navigating the new landscape of patient payments.” He describes a perfect storm impacting provider groups: the significant rise in patient …

Health care’s data problem: the real obstacle to AI success

Jay Anders, MD

Tech

May 11, 2025

As health care embraces digital transformation, one truth is clear: AI’s success depends on data quality. No matter how advanced the algorithms, poor clinical data limits their effectiveness.

AI in health care: Promise meets reality

The health care technology landscape is abuzz with large language models (LLMs) and conversational AI applications that show remarkable capabilities in synthesizing patient information and streamlining clinical workflows. Clinicians …

What ChatGPT’s tone reveals about our cultural values

Jenny Shields, PhD

Tech

May 11, 2025

When Sam Altman recently said ChatGPT had become “too sycophantic,” the comment landed like a small UX confession—an admission that the model had gotten a little too flattering, a little too eager to please. Most coverage treated it as a byproduct of reinforcement learning. A bug to fix. A tone issue.

But that framing isn’t neutral.

Calling AI “too nice” is a values-based judgment. And it reflects something deeper than model …

Bridging the digital divide: Addressing health inequities through home-based AI solutions

Dr. Sreeram Mullankandy

Tech

May 7, 2025

As a physician who transitioned into health technology leadership, my journey over the past few years has revealed a fundamental truth: The future of health care delivery isn’t confined to hospitals or clinics—it’s in patients’ homes as well. I am not just talking about patients who have to be discharged early from our hospitals, but also about patients who don’t have easy access to health care and patients who have …

Staying stone free with AI: How smart tech is revolutionizing kidney stone prevention

Robert Chan, MD

Tech

April 29, 2025

Kidney stones are painful, frustrating, and unfortunately common. I see this brutal problem every day as a urologist. When my wife had her first kidney stone while celebrating her 40th birthday, this issue became deeply personal. Seeing her in pain and struggling to navigate the confusing world of kidney stone prevention made me realize just how difficult this journey is for patients.

Many people are given generic dietary advice – drink …

AI in health care: the black box of prior authorization

P. Dileep Kumar, MD, MBA

Tech

April 14, 2025

Amidst the recent news about the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO, the issue of prior authorization has come to the forefront again. Insurance companies use prior authorization as an easy tool to control the costs and incorporate it as a genuine step of the health care delivery process. The recent trend is to use AI (artificial intelligence) for prior authorizations. AI offers several advantages over human workers, further saving time and …

Hospitals are driving revenue and improving outcomes with telehealth

Chris Gallagher, MD

Tech

March 31, 2025

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth has become a household word; Americans have increasingly turned to virtual platforms to connect with their doctors. But what has not become widely known is the role telehealth is playing in hospitals and emergency rooms across the country. From virtual neurology and cardiology to maternal-fetal medicine and behavioral health, specialists are remoting into patient rooms to address life-threatening symptoms—and, in the process, they are reducing …

Why doctors love AI scribes—and the risks they bring [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 26, 2025

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Urologist David Canes discusses his article, “Why AI scribes are changing medicine and the hidden risks you must know.” He shares insights from using AI scribes in over 3,000 clinical encounters, noting …

Medical curriculum 2.0: Integrating technology and innovation in medical education

Rishma Jivan, Omar Lateef, DO, and Bala Hota, MD

Education

March 19, 2025

Just as society has been transformed by technology solutions driven by connectivity and ubiquitous information, medical practice is undergoing a digital transformation that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Today’s medical students will practice in a world where technology is a more integrated part of health care; technology and innovation should become a cornerstone of medical education and training. This proactive approach will prepare future physicians for the technology-driven health …

Physicians must innovate and focus on medicine’s core, not chores

Grace E. Terrell, MD, MMM

Physician

March 18, 2025

Recently at the clinic where I’ve practiced for more than 30 years, the entire team became temporarily paralyzed by an IT glitch as a result of an upgrade, affecting the six-state organization. We weren’t able to use our EHR system. With the waiting room full of patients, we knew we had to move forward in rooming patients and switching to paper documentation. Our core mission is to take care of …

Addressing systemic challenges behind rising ER wait times [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 16, 2025

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Physician executive Aiden Feng discusses the article, “Rising ER wait times signal larger health system challenges.” In this episode, Aiden examines how increasing ED wait times reflect deeper systemic issues in the …

How AI is revolutionizing health care through the lens of Alice in Wonderland

Neil Anand, MD

Tech

March 14, 2025

Once upon a time, in the curious land of Wonderland, there lived a physician named Alice. On a curiouser and curiouser day, Alice found herself tumbling down the digital rabbit hole into a fantastical realm called Algorithmia, a land where the wonders of artificial intelligence (AI) shaped the very fabric of life. Guided by the enigmatic Mad Hatter, Alice encountered three peculiar AI Cheshire Cats—Transforma (transformers), Baye (Bayesian methods), and …

How copy and paste in EHRs is hurting patient care

Ben Hourani, MD, MBA

Tech

March 12, 2025

The electronic health record (EHR) has solved the illegibility issue of handwritten notes, but the downside and unintended consequences have been of equal or greater importance. The cult of the EHR “copy and paste” (CP) club in hospital care makes defending a Medicare billing audit a daunting task should a physician be required to justify their level of professional billing codes. The much more important issue, however, is that patient …

Health IT

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts