Editor's Note: This story is based on discussions at Avalca Forward, a conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, hosted by Avalca Health, the pharmacy benefits manager. Medcity News has been invited to participate in the event. The team's accommodations were eligible for Abarka. However, company officials did not give their opinions on the editorial report.
Some are worried that their jobs will be gone as AI takes the healthcare industry by storm. However, during a panel discussion at the Avaca Forward Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, medical executives provided the peace of mind that medical jobs would not disappear.
One of these panelists, Tony Navaro, executive vice president of Red Ventures, said this type of technological advancement is not new.
“This happened before,” he said. “If you look at the industrial era, if you look at the post-agricultural economy, farmers no longer use their hands, they are now using tractors. And (we're no longer woven into them, but we use factories to make clothes and stuff like that… we're not strangers in adopting technology.”
He added that while the adoption of AI may change the world, there are many tasks, roles and opportunities that will become available.
“Adaptability must be constant and constant,” Navarro said. “There are very accelerated progress, but it takes time. This isn't necessarily like turning the switch over, it happens all of a sudden.”
Another panelist reflected Navarro's comments. Xtillion co-founder and CEO Bertil Chappuis said that about 40% of today's employment were absent 30 years ago.
“There's more to do with new abilities than what can automate and replace humans,” says Chappuis. “And that was the case for the last two big waves of technological disruption. There's no guarantee. This time it may be different. We're dealing with basic intelligence, not part of the previous type of technological disruption. …I think we're fine, it's going to be very destructive.”
John Barto, chief digital transformation director at Microsoft's US Health & Life Sciences, added that there is a major adoption of AI among healthcare professionals. He said he is working with one healthcare provider that is trying to get doctors to use medical technology in medical notes. Although some doctors were reluctant, the organization gave doctors a scholarship to test their skills.
“What they ultimately realized was that at the end of the day they were home (and) they didn't need to make notes in the evening,” he said. “They didn't have all this extra work they had to do. The quality and accuracy of notes born out of technology was much higher than the doctors were sitting down and actually running their notes.”
That being said, one audience member noted that there was concern among medical professionals who treat AI “as a gospel” despite being able to make mistakes. However, Barto equated this technique with an assistant who needed to train.
“If you're a doctor, you'll get an assistant,” he said. “Over time, you train that assistant and learn how it works. You know where that assistant might make a mistake and where they aren't. So, one thing we show to most medical professionals is that first of all, you're responsible for the outcome you're documented, so you review it pretty well. …But if they're consistently using (technology), they'll find flaws. And the beauty is that they bring the flaws back to us.”
Credit: Mr.Cole_Photographer, Getty Images
