AI in Healthcare: Implications for Family Medicine and Primary Care

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has begun to transform industries including healthcare. Unfortunately, Primary Care and the discipline of Family Medicine have tended to lag behind in the implementation of this novel technology. Although the relationship between Family Medicine and AI is in its infancy greater engagement from Primary Care Physician’s (PCP’s) is a must due to the increasing shortage of practitioners. AI has the chance to overturn this problem as well as speed up its development. Considering the vast majority of PCP’s utilize Electronic Medical Records (EMR’s) the field is ripe for innovation. Regrettably, much of the information available remains unused for practice disruption. Primary Care offers a large data platform that can be leveraged with the use of technology to deliver ground-breaking trails forward to provide better comprehensive care for a wide-variety of patients from various backgrounds. The purpose of this chapter is to provide context to AI implementation as it relates to Primary Care and the practice of Family Medicine.