Jul. 4 – Gedulated for open heart surgery, Jim Powers Google used to find other options for his heart condition. The summary of Google AI overview led him to an innovative operation at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center.
As artificial intelligence in society is ingrained, more people can look at the technology to influence health decisions – for good or sick.
The 78-year-old forces are grateful to the new technology to take him to Sacred Heart. But the reliability of AI remains uncertain and the Powers surgeon warns against counting on the advice of a doctor.
“I think it is very useful to do your own research,” said Providence Heart Institute Surgeon Justin Reeves. “But I also think you should understand that you may not come to a conclusion that is in your interest. You still need the input of someone who is an actual trained professional in the field.”
Powers discovered his heart condition for the first time last spring after he had felt some pressure in the chest while the lawn falls from his post home. Within a few days he was in the first aid, who found a blocked artery that brought him a high risk of a heart attack. The hospital in Coeur d'Alene has planned its open heart surgery the following week.
The prospect that his chest is opened and the long recovery associated with the operation frightened powers and his wife. They had seen friends who went through similar procedures and how slow the recovery could be. They had just bought a new house in the south of Idaho and the operation could have slowed down or prevented their upcoming move.
“It was frightening,” said wife Pamela Powers. “I was just so worried about him.”
In the weekend before the operation, Jim Powers looked online at other options in the area. Before he could look through his Google results, the AI assistant of the platform ordered a new robot -like, microscopic surgery performed by Sacred Heart.
The Spokane Providence Heart Institute is one of the few programs in the country that offers minimally invasive coronary vehicle gran -pin operation. The traditional operation opens the chest and distributes the breastbone, and the heart is temporarily stopped while surgeons sew new arteries.
The robot procedure, which has offered Providence in the last 1/2 years, works by making an incision of 5 centimeters between the ribs. Surgeons use microscopic robotics to vaccinate the artery while the heart keeps beating.
“There are many benefits compared to the other operation,” said Reeves. “You avoid distributing the bone. You don't have to use the bypass machine to stop the heart. That is why we see people recovering two to three times faster than they would generally do.”
According to Reeves, patients usually recover from robot surgery within two weeks, while it can take months for the bone to be cured by open heart surgery.
Two weeks after the procedure, Jim Powers could not be better.
“I didn't have any pain. I realized,” he said last month just before his appointment two weeks after the procedure. “I didn't use any painkillers at all,”
His wife added that she “had trouble resting him.”
Jim Powers is not too smart with the internet and doubts that he would have discovered the operation if it had not been for the AI summary.
“I just love it,” he said. “It's great what technology can do nowadays. I remember that I just dug through the internet to find this stuff, but the fact that AI has surfaced on the first request was extremely useful, especially for people who are not really familiar or comfortable with a computer.”
Although the use of AI is useful in this context, it can also lead to the elderly to false rabbit holes. AI can present incorrect information if the model is not trained on a data set with correct information.
Reeves said that Jim Powers used the technology in the right way to inform his decisions, but ultimately to rely on expert advice. The pensioner was the first person among the patients of Reeves who mentions AI, but the internet is often a tool that patients use to diagnose themselves. Sometimes when the internet convinces someone of a certain treatment, it can be difficult to change thoughts, he said.
“Someone came to me who wanted a robot surgery, and he was just a really bad candidate for it,” he said. “And a truly risky candidate for the operation. I tried to convince him, but all his research on the internet was wrong to believe that this was the best option. And it was very difficult to convince him differently.”
In his practice, Reeves has not used Reeves personally, but providers are increasingly using technology, not just patients. It is mainly accepted by medicine fields that doctors require to compare large data sets to find anomalies in patients.
University of Washington Chairman of Radiology Dushyant Sahani believes that AI can be especially useful in its field during cancer screenings.
“Doctors are overwhelmed by managing the data,” he said. “And we want the doctor to concentrate more time with the patient and offer them the best experience. Healthcare is one of the best human efforts, but it is also a travel trip. And in the modern world we have so much data, but we need a better way to use this data for the right decision -making.”
Sahani is co-founder of your's Institute of Medical Data Science, which supports initiatives for healthcare-related artificial intelligence.
AI can also help with triage and giving priority to care. Often the role of medicine is to decide how they prioritize patients who first need care or need more care, and help with administrative tasks, such as writing notes after a doctor's visit or patients to plan their agreements.
Spokane Providence, the largest health system in Spokane, uses AI to complete administrative tasks and to help medical professionals with the diagnosis at Sacred Heart and other facilities.
“Providence is a thoughtful, responsible approach to integrate artificial intelligence into our health system,” said Providence spokesperson Jen York. “Years of investments in digital infrastructure have already positioned us to safely scale generative AI tools that support healthcare providers, improve patient care and prevent burnout. Although AI is a lot of promise for transforming health care, our top priority remains the safety and privacy of our patients.”
Multicare Deaconess Hospital introduced various autonomous robots that use AI to cross the hospital and deliver supplies and complete subordinate tasks.
While he emphasizes the need for careful implementation, Reeves is hopeful AI and the internet will be broadly offering patients better care and more informed health care options.
“I actually think it can be useful,” said Reeves. “It helps us to get connected to what the patient is looking for. But a lot of judgment is still needed, and I think we are taking a lot of things from the daily what we do in the operating room.”
