Artificial intelligence is a hot topic in spine surgery, and it lends itself to different applications.
Here is how three experts are thinking about AI:
1. AI has garnered excitement but the actual implementation of the technology widespread in spine might take time, Andrew Lovewell, CEO at Columbia (Mo.) Orthopaedic Group, said.
"At this point, the jury is out on the full use case in many settings that we work in today," Mr. Lovewell said. "There is a lot of excitement and discussion about the future of medicine and the way it will look given this technological boom that we are experiencing. However, I don't look for things to change as rapidly as some are predicting. Healthcare has been one of the slowest adopters of evolving technologies or principles due to the regulatory burden and the cost curve that exists. If we could find a way to bend the cost curve on cutting-edge technologies, I would expect the deployment and use of AI and large language models to increase exponentially. In fact, as more companies develop AI, machine learning, and LLM I do believe we will see the cost burden lessen as things become more of a commodity in our space."
2. AI also has its place in spine surgeon billing, which can otherwise be an arduous task, Alex Vaccaro, MD, PhD, president of Philadelphia-based Rothman Orthopaedic Institute said.
"We did a lot of things by hand in our billing office," Dr. said. "We would send the insurance company a bill and when we eventually got paid we were never really sure if we got paid according to the explanation of benefits. We would then have to go back on each claim and hand adjudicate. The volume of surgeries we do each year is incredible. In Florida alone it is 11,000 cases a year. We automated that with a single-platform electronic revenue cycle management system. Now our claims are accepted, rejected or modified and we receive this information in a much shorter time period. We now can see if the claims were paid as per our contractual agreements. You could just imagine with the volume of surgeries performed at Rothman it is so easy to be underpaid or not paid at all. This risk is now mitigated through technology as a medical care provider only has a limited time period to get reimbursed. We have exploited AI through tireless bots that check and ensure a surgeon's bills are placed on the date of surgery and are billed according to the accepted pre-authorized schedule. If I used a code that wasn't pre-authorized, AI technology would notify the surgical team appropriately, and the pre-authorization would be updated and submitted to the insurance company."
3. Despite its benefits so far, physicians should still be cautious about not becoming too reliant on AI, Christian Zimmerman, MD, of Boise, Idaho-based St. Alphonsus Medical Group and SAHS Neuroscience Institute, said.
"There certainly seems to be a societal press in medicine (like every other facet of our professional lives) to meld AI beyond our perspectives to a point of newfound dependence, should elevate nervousness amongst actual and proper practicing clinicians," he said. "Some aspects of discernable AI techniques such as risk stratification, image analysis and intraoperative navigation may be useful to some, the variability of patient symptoms and diversity of anatomic presentation requires more individualistic prescience. My fears of further dehumanizing the art and science of medicine will only be furthered and justified with added dilution of separation as this reliance and dependence grows. The goals of mitigating doubt and errors in medicine and its delivery is paramount. Methods to do so are supported."