In this episode of NRC Health’s Patient No Longer podcast we discuss the future of AI and its impacts on the patient experience, fighting healthcare disinformation, and the power of healthcare leaders as educators and influencers.

AI, misinformation, and navigating ever-changing healthcare experiences with Doctor Mike, hosted by Ryan Donohue, thought-leader, author, and strategic advisor with NRC Health.

Doctor Mike/Dr. Mikhail Varshavaski, Family Medicine physician and Health & Lifestyle personality

When it comes to the current state of AI, Doctor Mike says it’s not as involved in the day-to-day for physicians as he thought it would be. “You would think, with the exponential growth of technology, we would have AI more streamlined in taking care of patients, in documentation, in billing—and it’s nowhere to be found,” he says.

He adds that he feels like AI is the next frontier of healthcare because “we desperately need help with a lot of the mundane tasks, so we can focus on the patient sitting in front of us and that human first connection.”

The fight against misinformation and disinformation is an ongoing battle in healthcare. “I think we’re in this world of alternative facts,” says Doctor Mike. “And even saying the term makes me a little bit queasy, because I’m not sure what it means. And that’s where both terms need to be very carefully defined.”

Doctor Mike says that for him, disinformation is defined by intent. “It’s putting out misinformation that you know is going to cause harm and you have a reason for it,” he says. “You’re trying to gain something, and that’s disinformation.”

He defines misinformation as putting out incorrect knowledge, whether by accident or in a more indirect way, as on television medical dramas.

“We need to be very careful of how we talk, present, and ultimately study healthcare, so that we’re not purveyors of this misinformation,” he says.

The focus on human connection is critical in healthcare but can be difficult to talk about.

“The healthcare system is set up in such a way that people are so frustrated with the notion of primary care not being available, being too expensive, doctors not having openings, people having to wait four months for an appointment, doctors not accepting new patients,” says Doctor Mike. “So,they go and get the next best thing, which is urgent care, and they just get the temporary fix for their problem. And long-term, that’s not a great solution.”

But he cautions that when doctors explain the value and importance of primary care on social media, it can come across almost as gaslighting patients, because patients in fact want primary care.

“They can’t get it, and here I am telling them what they need,” he says.

Being accessible from an educational standpoint is valuable. “I think there are two true values that come from providers being online and readily available to provide general education,” Doctor Mike says. “One, it provides direct counterattack to the misinformation, because when misinformation started spreading at the beginning of the pandemic, there weren’t enough physicians online to fact-check it all.

“The second part is that when you provide patients with general information on a condition, if you provide them an accurate view of what a visit with a doctor is like, that will make their experience in the office better, because it will allow them to get information before the visit—to come in a little bit more educated, a little more empowered, asking better questions.”