Conference recap: ACP Internal Medicine Meeting 2025

Medical Economics was on the ground in New Orleans covering the American College of Physicians Internal Medicine 2025 meeting. Check out our recaps below for some highlights from the show, and see all our coverage here.

Does AI really make your life easier?

In a presentation, Stephen P. Ma, MD, a medical informatics director of analytics and evaluation at Stanford, and Deepti Pandita, MD, FACP, FAMIA, VP of informatics and chief medical information officer at the University of California, Irvine, discussed the role that artificial intelligence (AI) plays in reducing clinician burden. The session, titled “How AI Can Reduce Clinician Burden,” was presented at the American College of Physicians (ACP) Internal Medicine Meeting 2025 in New Orleans.

For many physicians, the daily grind of documentation, billing and other administrative tasks can pose an overwhelming burden that eats into patient care. AI could be the long-awaited game-changer.

“A few [uses of AI] come to the top: medical advice messages… ambient documentation, drafting denial and appeal letters, patient friendly summaries and some assistance with CDI, billing and coding,” explained Pandita, who is also an associate professor of medicine in the clinical informatics department at UC Irvine.

AI-powered documentation

One of AI’s biggest selling points in medicine is documentation. AI-driven speech recognition and natural language processing (NLP) tools can transcribe patient encounters in real time, turning spoken words into structured, editable notes.

Pandita shared the results of a survey analyzing physician use of ambient AI scribe tools. Regardless of the AI tool, “there was a reduction in time spent documenting, and it was an average of anywhere from 12 minutes to 20 minutes,” which she notes is “significant.”

“I mean, 20 minutes per day, which — if you’re working five days a week — that is giving you back a couple of hours of your life, which you can spend in any way you want,” Pandita said.

But AI isn’t just a transcription tool — it’s also helping with coding, billing and prior authorizations.

Pandita specifically spoke about a collaboration she has with Latent AI, developing a tool for use in specialty pharmacy prior authorizations. “Prior authorizations for specialty pharmacies were taking anywhere from upwards of 20 to 30 minutes per pharmacy tech… to less than three minutes,” Pandita said. “That was game-changing.”

Read the rest here.

Facing a physician exodus, an ACP panel offers blueprints to help internists stay in practice

The headlines about a looming physician shortage are growing louder, but for internal medicine physicians on the ground, the reality is already here — and it’s taking a toll.

At the American College of Physicians (ACP) Internal Medicine Meeting 2025, health system leaders and frontline clinicians came together to explore the root causes of internist attrition — and what can actually be done about it.

The session, “How to Encourage Internal Medicine Physicians to Stay and Thrive in Clinical Practice,” offered both hard data and deeply personal reflections on burnout, depression, administrative overload, and why even passionate doctors are reconsidering their place in medicine.

“Really, it’s instability of the workforce,” said Ankita Sagar, MD, MPH, FACP, assistant vice president for clinical standards at CommonSpirit Health and outgoing chair of ACP’s Council of Early Career Physicians. “We’ve all heard of early retirements. We’ve heard about quiet quitting. Well, it’s not so quiet anymore. It’s pretty loud and clear.”

By the numbers

According to Sagar, nearly 20,000 primary care physicians could be missing from the U.S. workforce by 2036. “The likelihood of leaving [one's] current position in the next five years… between 54 to 64 years old, about nine out of the 18 said they were somewhat likely to leave,” she noted. “Less than 54 years old — same story.”

But it’s not just about numbers. “Lifestyle and well-being… were top [priorities]” in recent survey data, she said. “I know compensation [and] incentive structures are listed at the top, but really, when you get down to the questions… it was really in lieu of having that lifestyle [to support] family needs.”

Burnout, redefined

Burnout is nothing new in health care — but defining it remains elusive. Elizabeth Cerceo, MD, FACP, FHM, associate professor of medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, said even the prevalence varies wildly. “In a more recent systematic review of 182 studies… [with] 142 different definitions… depending on the definition, a huge prevalence could range from zero to 80%,” she said.

She also challenged the sharp division between burnout and depression. “People didn’t want to say that it’s depression because the symptoms are occurring in the setting of a dysfunctional workplace… But modern DSM doesn’t differentiate environmental [triggers].”

Read the rest here.

ACP’s special report on health policy warns of mounting disruptions under the Trump administration

As the Trump administration rapidly reshapes the federal health policy landscape, leaders at the American College of Physicians (ACP) delivered an urgent briefing to physicians Thursday at the ACP Internal Medicine Meeting 2025. They warned of unprecedented challenges to public health, physician reimbursement, and the regulatory environment.

“This is real,” said Shari Erickson, MPH, ACP’s chief advocacy officer and SVP for governmental affairs and public policy.

Erickson, along with Brian Outland, PhD, ACP’s director of regulatory affairs, and George Lyons Jr., JD-MBA, director of legislative affairs and EVP of ACP services, led the 60-minute session titled “Hot Issues in Health Policy 2025.” Together, they detailed a flurry of executive orders, proposed agency overhauls, and looming Congressional battles with direct implications for internal medicine physicians.

Executive orders, website takedowns and workforce cuts

Among the panel’s top concerns were the unprecedented scale and speed of policy changes.

“Trump has issued over 100 executive orders at this point,” Erickson said. “In the first couple of weeks of his term, there were 45 that were issued — 26 on the first day.”

Those orders have already impacted data accessibility. “On Friday, January 31, a whole bunch of websites went down,” she said. “I remember going ‘What in the world is happening?’ I was getting texts and emails and going to pages — ‘Where are they? Where are they?’”

Major restructuring at health agencies

Outland continued, walking attendees through sweeping changes to HHS, including the creation of a new “Administration for Healthy America,” which merges agencies including the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), and parts of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“They’re going to also [implement] this new Assistant Secretary for Enforcement,” Outland said. “They’re going to then take this office, combine the Office of Civil Rights, the Office of Appeals, Medicare Appeals.”

He warned that such changes will likely degrade essential services. “How long will it take to get appeals done?” That is something they are looking at.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are also being restructured.

“The FDA is going to be losing about 3,500 employees,” Outland said. “This will perhaps cut things [tied] to drug development and create risk to patients and others.” Regarding the CDC, Outland said that they will be “losing approximately 2,400 employees.”

Cuts to public health, DEI programs, and vaccine oversight

The ACP also voiced concern over executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and vaccine oversight. “There are a couple of primary DEI executive orders,” Erickson said. She also addressed the postponement of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting. “We put out a statement expressing our deep concern with regard to the cancellation or postponement.”

ACP joined 34 other organizations in March to reaffirm vaccine safety amid rising disinformation.

Read the rest here.