Reporting my guest article in Mexico Business News
We tend to think of AI as cold and mathematical, ill-equipped to handle our emotional needs. And it’s true that any empathy you sense when chatting with an AI bot like ChatGPT or Claude isn’t “real.”
AI can’t truly connect with you or your experiences. It can’t understand how you feel. After all, it doesn’t feel (as far as we know, anyway!).
But more and more studies are showing us that AI can be an amazing tool for driving empathy in human-to-human interactions. Healthcare is no exception.
AI can not only automate work that keeps providers from giving patients their full attention and projecting compassion, but also — perhaps shockingly — it can offer responses that are rated as more empathetic than human responses.
This makes AI an invaluable coaching tool in healthcare, able to offer providers feedback on their interactions, suggestions on how to improve, and the insights they need to consistently deliver the empathetic care they strive for.
This feedback is all the more valuable considering how infrequently most organizations do quality assurance (QA) on healthcare interactions (a recent Verbal survey found that less than a third of organizations do QA calls more than once per month).
Here’s a quick look at the potential for AI to enhance empathy in healthcare and how new developments in AI can allow us to get back to basics when it comes to patient experience.
The Gift of Time
Connecting with patients is key to effective care, but so much gets in the way.
The growing administrative burden placed on providers hampers their ability to engage deeply with patients, as they’re continually pressed for time and often buried by administrative tasks like updating electronic health records (EHRs). This can make it difficult to give patients the time and attention they’d like during visits.
It also drives burnout, as providers feel overwhelmed and disillusioned with their work — certainly not feelings that promote deep engagement with patients. Indeed, one 2023 survey found that 6 out of 10 doctors often had feelings of burnout, much of which is driven by the ridiculous administrative burden placed on them.
In his recent papers and his book Deep Medicine, Dr. Eric Topol has been vocal about how these burdens and divided attention can compromise the quality of patient interaction. Divided attention can make providers seem rushed or less engaged, leaving patients to wonder if they’re really being heard or if their concerns are being taken seriously.
The data backs this up: A recent poll from MITRE-Harris found that 52% of patients felt “ignored, dismissed, or not believed” when seeking care. That percentage jumps even higher among minority groups in the United States, with 6 in 10 within the Hispanic community saying they felt this way.
But AI can offer providers the gift of time. By automating administrative tasks like documentation, note-taking and updating records, AI can allow providers to be more present during visits and better project their genuine care and compassion.
As Topol observes, this shift is not merely operational but fundamentally empathetic, fostering a care environment where patients feel seen and heard.
Matt Troup, PA-C, may have put it best in a recent piece on why he left medicine (and why AI might convince him to return). As Troup writes, AI can help us “return to the reason why (we) got into medicine: to be present and engaged with patients, and to help them understand they have the support and counsel of clinicians who not only care, but have the capacity to care.”
AI Can Be an Empathy Guide
Along with giving providers the time and mental space they need to offer empathetic care, AI can also help promote empathy on its own.
Amazingly, a 2023 study in JAMA found that AI responses to patient questions were nearly 10 times more likely to be considered empathetic than doctors’ responses.
This revelation underscores AI’s potential as a tool for enhancing empathetic communication — an “empathy coaching” tool.
AI can give providers real-time feedback on how to show more empathy during visits, offering recommendations on everything from questions to ask to phrasing that shows sensitivity to patient concerns.
As Topol puts it in a recent piece for The Lancet: “The potential of AI coaching clinicians to be more compassionate and sensitive by review of their patient interactions could emerge as a vital educational tool in the future, not only for medical students but for all health professionals.”
Topol also quotes Drs. Peter Lee, Carey Goldberg and Isaac Kohane, from their book The AI Revolution in Medicine: GPT-4 and Beyond: “While an A.I. system might not ever be a replacement for the human touch in medicine, this response suggests A.I. could help doctors and nurses muster even more empathy and humanity to engage well with their patients and also continue a path of growth and self-improvement.”
Looking forward, the integration of AI in healthcare offers a dual promise: to revolutionize operational efficiencies and to enhance the human essence of care. This balance is critical in the evolving landscape of healthcare, where the demand for personal, empathetic interactions remains paramount. It’s also key in a world of value-based care, where revenues are directly tied to patient outcomes and satisfaction.
The prospect of AI as a partner in care presents a new frontier in healthcare, one where technology and human compassion coexist to elevate the patient experience.
The Bottom Line: Embrace AI´s Potential for Good
As healthcare professionals, technologists, and policymakers navigate this new terrain, a collective effort is required to harness the potential of AI in service of empathy.
This entails a commitment to not only investing in AI technologies but also to fostering an ethical, patient-centered approach to their deployment. The ultimate goal is a healthcare system where technology enhances the capacity for human connection, ensuring that every patient interaction is informed by empathy and compassion.
Beyond the impressive capabilities of AI to diagnose, predict, and manage health conditions, lies its profound potential to enrich the empathetic connections that form the cornerstone of effective healthcare.
By alleviating administrative burdens, enhancing communication, and enabling more meaningful human interactions, AI stands as a formidable ally in the pursuit of a more empathetic, patient-centered healthcare system.
As we forge ahead, our challenge is steering this technological revolution toward enhancing the human aspects of care. With thoughtful integration and a commitment to empathy, the future of healthcare promises not just technological advancement, but a deeper, more compassionate engagement with every patient.
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