Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: AI timesaversAs we race to implement artificial intelligence (AI) into healthcare, it's worth asking what problems it's trying to solve.If only it could do all those time consuming things doctors aren't trained for, so we could get on with the things we were trained for.A randomised controlled trial in a primary care setting in China found that consultation times were reduced when a patient-facing large language model chatbot was used to take a history and suggest preliminary diagnoses and tests.One striking feature of the study was that the average length of primary care appointments in the control group was only 4.41 minutes-which also happens to be the average time it takes to print off a blood test form with the labels the right way round.Average consultation time in the chatbot group was only 3.14 minutes, my personal best for finding a dermatoscope and taking a photo that isn't too blurry.It's a relief to know we'll have more time to fit these tasks into appointments in the future.
Source: BMJ
DOI: 10.1136/bmj.s158
Author: Tom Nolan
Institution: BMJ Group (United Kingdom)
Language: English
Subfield: Health Informatics
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7127940803
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