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From iPatient to Ai-Patient: a responsibility to medical education
Our institution was an early implementer of a major electronic health record (EHR) in 2008. Trainees immediately restructured their workflows around the computer, no longer required to manually transcribe vitals, medications and labs into daily notes. Patient charts could be accessed from anywhere without scrambling to separate units each morning in a 5am scavenger hunt for flowsheets and three-ring binders. The time it took trainees to prepare for attending rounds seemingly cut in half overnight. This newfound efficiency came with an unexpected cost. Dr Abraham Verghese coined the term ‘iPatient’ to describe an overreliance on data over direct patient care and the clinical exam.1 Many of Dr Verghese’s concerns ultimately proved to be correct with trainees and faculty alike, spending hours with the chart each day,2–4 many preferring card-flipping workflows over bedside rounds, sacrificing nursing relationships for all-hours data access. Nearly two decades later, some of our first trainees to use the EHR are now mid-career faculty who are at yet another potential technological revolution.