Journal of general internal medicine
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Generative artificial intelligence (generative AI) is a new technology with potentially broad applications across important domains of healthcare, but serious questions remain about how to balance the promise of generative AI against unintended consequences from adoption of these tools. In this position statement, we provide recommendations on behalf of the Society of General Internal Medicine on how clinicians, technologists, and healthcare organizations can approach the use of these tools. We focus on three major domains of medical practice where clinicians and technology experts believe generative AI will have substantial immediate and long-term impacts: clinical decision-making, health systems optimization, and the patient-physician relationship. ⋯ We further recommend deep and ongoing partnerships with clinicians and patients as necessary collaborators in this work. And for healthcare organizations, we recommend pursuing a combination of both incremental and transformative change with generative AI, directing resources toward both endeavors, and avoiding the urge to rapidly displace the human clinical workforce with generative AI. We affirm that the practice of medicine remains a fundamentally human endeavor which should be enhanced by technology, not displaced by it.
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The US faces a maternal health crisis and struggles to deliver recommended postpartum care. In some populations, less than half of mothers attend a postpartum visit. ⋯ Two-Gen clinic participation was associated with high rates of timely postpartum care in a group of predominantly young, publicly insured, racial, and ethnic minority mothers and compared favorably to usual care across multiple metrics, notably utilization of primary and behavioral health care.
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Diet-related chronic diseases account for seven out of the ten leading causes of death in the USA. Food is Medicine (FIM) interventions can be effective adjuncts to standard medical care to address this cost burden. While the Food is Medicine Pyramid recommends some culinary skill development when integrating FIM into healthcare, the emphasis is on medically tailored meals and food provision. Hence, there is a practice gap to ensure patients develop the necessary skills to apply nutrition recommendations into improved food behaviors to achieve positive long-term health outcomes. ⋯ It describes how these interventions can and have been used in a clinical setting as adjuncts to clinical care. While there is published evidence for each modality individually, the literature lacks evidence of the value of an integrated approach. The framework therefore provides a roadmap to both identify best practices and evaluate outcomes that will inform viable financial models.