The state of physical medicine: AI as a new tool for physicians to treat patients

Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to be one of the most significant forces to reshape physical medicine and rehabilitation. John C. Cianca, M.D., FAAPMR, president of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, noted that medical residents are already turning to AI to instantly synthesize bodies of medical literature rather than reading individual articles — a shift that is forcing professional societies like the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation to reconsider how they deliver continuing medical education.

Medical Economics: Can you about how physiatrists are using AI in their practices? Where is the specialty merging with AI?

John C. Cianca, M.D., FAAPMR: AI in and of itself is going to be a huge influence, probably positive and possibly negative. And I think that's true across society, right? I mean, it could literally change the way we live, and yet, we don't know how yet. We've seen it very rapidly change things and I think we're just scratching the surface.

But with respect to what we do, and this is really a concern of my society, the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, for instance, how do we deliver education? Well, historically, we did it through in-person learning, and then we evolved to more online learning and microlearning through various forms of technology that allow immediate access. With AI that may all go away. So we're having to adjust, how are we going to deliver education? Do we even need to deliver education? Because it's so readily available by just tapping into AI, and in fact, that is happening at the resident level. It's just so easy for them, rather than to go and read an article, to just tap into AI and find out what the consensus of literature is now, not just one article, but multiple articles, condensed and summarized. It ultimately could be a good thing, but it's going to affect us as a society, meaning my professional society. And I think that's true across all medical societies, they're trying to figure out, how are we going to use this without getting made obsolete from it.? But on the other hand, as I mentioned earlier, it could be very good for making health care efficient, because you've got all that information now right at your fingertips, without having to take the time to consolidate and track it down and or if you don't even have access to it by way of presence, you have it virtually. So, remains to be seen. It's going to be a big influence and how we adapt, or adopt it, may be better, is it's going to influence whether it is a positive or negative. That's all I can say at this point, because I don't know much about it, but I've seen big changes in my lifetime, and this represents, to me, probably even the biggest change that may happen.