Main image courtesy of Oxford Urgent Care.

AI has been making its way into every healthcare field, and orthopedics is no different. These doctors specialize in taking care of our musculoskeletal system that includes our muscles, bones, joints, ligaments, and tendons. So whether you’ve sustained an injury due to sports or other physical activity, or it’s related to arthritis and age, orthopedists treat patients in both surgical and non-surgical ways. There are plenty of ways in which AI can assist these specialized providers, which is why today we’re discussing:

• The overall benefits of AI in healthcare
• How orthopedic doctors are using AI
• Whether or not AI can replace orthopedic doctors

How are doctors using AI?

AI is helping out healthcare professionals in a variety of ways

Although it might seem like AI is something that we’ll use in the future of healthcare, the reality is it’s already in use in all kinds of hospitals, practices, and clinics. Doctors are embracing AI because it’s augmenting their expertise with the help of natural language processing and deep machine learning. AI applications can process an immense amount of data, and start to learn and make suggestions to improve processes that are in place. Doctors are using AI to:

• Improve diagnostics, which includes reading x-rays and images. AI is able to scan diagnostics quickly and with greater accuracy than clinicians, which means issues are caught sooner.
• Assist with administrative tasks such as ambient listening scribes that create notes automatically.
• Ensure accurate coding and billing.
• Help weigh which treatments would be best for patients.
• Assist in procedures like surgeries.
• Continually learn and practice their skills.

AI can be very beneficial to those providers that use it, in fact it can have a variety of positive impacts on the healthcare field. 

Benefits of including AI in healthcare

Improved provider/patient relationship

One of the major benefits of including AI in healthcare is that it improves the provider/patient relationship. When clinicians utilize AI ambient scribes, they’re better able to focus their attention on the patient, and not worry about entering information into their medical record. Creating notes is an essential administrative task, but if it can be more accurately performed by an AI application, this is great news for providers and patients.

When patients feel they’re being heard by their doctor, they’re more likely to feel satisfied with their treatment. Not to mention clinicians can spend more time focusing on patients, not clerical work, and reduce the chances of burn out. 

More personalized treatment plans

AI can easily scan patients’ medical records and diagnostics and provide the doctor with options when it comes to treatment plans. While this does not supplant the expertise of the clinician, it does give them a variety of treatments and potential outcomes to choose from based on their experience. Knowing which potential outcomes can yield the best results for the patient helps create a more personalized approach to care.

Streamlined workflow

Clinicians want to focus on patients, but they are also a part of a healthcare team that’s responsible for billing, scheduling, running tests, and follow ups. AI applications can help streamline a hospital, clinic, or other healthcare facility’s workflow by automating work processes and the patient journey. 

Drug development

In addition to helping improve outcomes for patients and making processes more efficient, AI also helps when it comes to the drug discovery process. AI can analyze data to determine what drugs have the potential to help patients, and determine if doing further research into them is warranted.

Education

AI is also helpful in providing life-like scenarios via virtual reality for specialists like surgeons to continue to practice their skills and learn what they can improve upon. 

How orthopedic doctors are using AI

AI is having a big impact on how orthopedic doctors care for patients

While it’s easy to see how AI in general is making a big impact in healthcare, what can it specifically do for orthopedic doctors? As it turns out, there’s a lot of ways that AI can assist doctors who take care of our muscles, bones, and connective tendons and ligaments. 

Faster diagnoses

One of the major benefits of including AI in healthcare is that it improves the speed at which diagnoses can be made. But it’s not only the fact that AI can move more rapidly than humans, it also needs to be incredibly accurate. In orthopedics, this translates into two areas:

• Identifying implants. When orthopedic surgeons need to do a revision to a surgery due to a failed implant, AI can quickly find the implant with a high degree of accuracy. Studies have shown that AI can do just that using only radiographs (x-rays). This is important because it can not only identify the implant, but it can do so much quicker than a provider.

• Imaging diagnosis. AI can also identify issues like fractures with the accuracy of an orthopedic doctor but much more quickly. These applications can also identify and grade osteoarthritis from x-rays, as well as other conditions such as osteoporosis and joint infections. 

Suggesting treatment/procedures with the best outcomes

AI applications can analyze vast amounts of patient data and weigh it against potential outcomes accounting for each particular patient’s variables. It can also learn how to better predict the length of stay each patient may require, and the cost of the recommended procedure, such as an arthroplasty. This type of predictive analysis is designed to help orthopedic doctors determine which type of procedure will provide the patient with results they want, with the least amount of interruption to their daily lives—not to mention out of pocket cost.

By analyzing loads of data, as well as the previous treatments and responses of the patient, AI can use predictive analysis to give orthopedic doctors narrowed down options that they can choose.

Assistance during surgery

If the course of treatment involves surgery, which is common in orthopedics, AI can assist during the surgery in a variety of ways. The first way is by assisting the surgeon by first taking a CT scan of the bone that needs to be removed or altered so that a medical device can be implanted. As the surgeon works, the AI can assist by keeping the provider following along according to plan by giving suggestions and directions to improve their mobility. 

Alternatively, if the surgeon is performing a surgery on a tendon or ligament (such as ACL or MCL surgery) AI can map out the entire ligament beforehand, so it can determine with great accuracy how much it should be cut or repaired.

Having an AI application along for the surgery for insights helps orthopedic doctors reliably follow a plan that should provide the best results for the patient, decrease tissue damage, and improve patient mobility and range of movement.

Augmented reality

Although it is even newer than AI to healthcare, AR (augmented reality) has a lot of potential to assist surgeons during procedures, as well as provide better ways to improve accuracy and precision. Orthopedic doctors can wear glasses or a headset that imposes images onto real procedures. Having a 3-D image over the area where the surgery is happening is like having an outline to follow, increasing the chances of accuracy and that the procedure is done right the first time. Orthopedics can benefit from AR during procedures like repairing fractures by inserting screws, or improving implant location accuracy.

AR is not FDA approved for all procedures however, so some of the benefits of AR that may be used in the future for clinical use, are still in the training and educational status.

Patient monitoring

AI systems can also monitor the patient throughout a surgical procedure, sending real time updates to surgical staff. This ensures a smooth workflow and keeps track of items on the surgical checklist. Post-surgery, AI can also send updates to the orthopedic team to continue to gather data on how long recovery should take.

Rehab and recovery

After an orthopedic procedure, the next course of action is typically rehabilitation to help the patient regain mobility, or learn to use their implant correctly. AI applications can use predictive analysis to determine what type of rehab, and how long, would provide maximum benefits to patients. There are also wearable AI devices that monitor a patient’s gait, such as Exer Gait, while they’re recovering to ensure they’re moving along the recovery timeline as they should.

Automating the recovery process can also include follow ups or patient surveys that provide patients a chance to provide feedback about their experience. Instead of having to schedule an in-person visit, this can be a phone call that’s done after the patient’s procedure.

Will AI replace orthopedic surgeons?

While the assistance of AI is much appreciated, it will not be replacing orthopedic surgeons in the near future. The focus of AI in healthcare should be to replace, but to augment the expertise of providers. There are a variety of reasons why it will not eliminate clinicians, including:

• The doctor/patient relationship is primary. There is no way to replace the doctor/patient relationship with an AI application. Each patient is different, and comes to the orthopedic doctor or surgeon with their own specific medical history and variables that require a human to weigh. The care of a patient can never be left up to an algorithm, as the provider knows their patient, and sees what type of treatment they are most likely to respond to.

While AI can help shorten the list of options and give those with the most likelihood of success, the human clinician will need to decide the best course of action.

• Bias. When an AI application scans through data to learn, there is always the potential for bias if the data is biased. If the data it reads is biased, it can only make suggestions and predictions based on those biases, which can lead to unequal care or treatment plans that are not in the best interest of the patient. This is why it’s essential that AI learns from a broad scope of data from a variety of sources so it can learn patterns that include all kinds of outcomes.

• Ethical issues. AI will not replace orthopedic doctors or surgeons because it would be unethical to leave major life-changing decisions to an algorithm. If there is a mistake or the AI learned from biased data, who is responsible? 

• Technology is designed as a tool to help, not replace. AI developers are not designing these applications to replace specialized healthcare providers, but to assist them. Healthcare professionals want to focus on their patients, and work out the best possible treatment plans to help them heal. AI can assist by eliminating tedious and time-consuming paperwork, and it can also offer unprecedented assistance during complex procedures like surgery. Providers with the help of AI can improve patient outcomes and overall experience. 

AI can assist in a variety of healthcare fields, including orthopedics

There are a lot of benefits to including more AI in your healthcare facility, no matter the size. If you’re interested in adding an ambient medical scribe to help improve workflow, or you’re looking for better diagnostic analysis for your orthopedic practice, there are lots of choices when it comes to taking advantage of all the benefits of AI.