AI-Generated Draft Replies Integrated Into Health Records and Physicians' Electronic Communication.

Importance: Timely tests are warranted to assess the association between generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) use and physicians' work efforts. Objective: To investigate the association between GenAI-drafted replies for patient messages and physician time spent on answering messages and the length of replies. Design, Setting, and Participants: Randomized waiting list quality improvement (QI) study from June to August 2023 in an academic health system. Primary care physicians were randomized to an immediate activation group and a delayed activation group. Data were analyzed from August to November 2023. Exposure: Access to GenAI-drafted replies for patient messages. Main Outcomes and Measures: Time spent (1) reading messages, (2) replying to messages, (3) length of replies, and (4) physician likelihood to recommend GenAI drafts. The a priori hypothesis was that GenAI drafts would be associated with less physician time spent reading and replying to messages. A mixed-effects model was used. Results: Fifty-two physicians participated in this QI study, with 25 randomized to the immediate activation group and 27 randomized to the delayed activation group. A contemporary control group included 70 physicians. There were 18 female participants (72.0%) in the immediate group and 17 female participants (63.0%) in the delayed group; the median age range was 35-44 years in the immediate group and 45-54 years in the delayed group. The median (IQR) time spent reading messages in the immediate group was 26 (11-69) seconds at baseline, 31 (15-70) seconds 3 weeks after entry to the intervention, and 31 (14-70) seconds 6 weeks after entry. The delayed group's median (IQR) read time was 25 (10-67) seconds at baseline, 29 (11-77) seconds during the 3-week waiting period, and 32 (15-72) seconds 3 weeks after entry to the intervention. The contemporary control group's median (IQR) read times were 21 (9-54), 22 (9-63), and 23 (9-60) seconds in corresponding periods. The estimated association of GenAI was a 21.8% increase in read time (95% CI, 5.2% to 41.0%; P = .008), a -5.9% change in reply time (95% CI, -16.6% to 6.2%; P = .33), and a 17.9% increase in reply length (95% CI, 10.1% to 26.2%; P < .001). Participants recognized GenAI's value and suggested areas for improvement. Conclusions and Relevance: In this QI study, GenAI-drafted replies were associated with significantly increased read time, no change in reply time, significantly increased reply length, and some perceived benefits. Rigorous empirical tests are necessary to further examine GenAI's performance. Future studies should examine patient experience and compare multiple GenAIs, including those with medical training.

Promoting self-management in diabetes: efficacy of a collaborative care approach.

Diabetes is a leading cause of death and is estimated to cost the United States 90 billion dollars annually. Increasing patient self-management skills has been shown to improve outcomes in patients with Type II diabetes. Promotion of shared decision-making between patient and provider is a core element of collaborative care and is especially well suited for increasing patient self-management. Research trials to date have been limited in demonstrating how self-management promotion can be fully integrated into primary care practices. Demonstration of the impact of this approach is needed. This study involves 22 randomly assigned physicians across three family medicine clinics to either provide usual care or work with a part-time collaborative care therapist in their clinic serving as an outreach health coach for their diabetic patients. Each outreach health coach met with each physician in the intervention group to identify patients most in need of intervention, sent identified patients a video on diabetes management, and called to encourage video viewing and discuss any patient-perceived barriers to self-management. Initial markers of patient activation in self-management, patients' video-viewing behavior, and health care encounters in the subsequent 6 months were compared between groups. Results showed that patients targeted by an outreach health coach were more likely to view the video, be seen by their primary care physician (PCP) within 6 months, and have disease-relevant laboratory tests performed than patients receiving usual care from their PCP (p < .05). This approach, linking PCPs with collaborative care staff, is viewed as expanding the engagement of PCPs with the collaborative team for superior patient health outcomes.

If you build it, will they come? A qualitative evaluation of the use of video-based decision aids in primary care.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Given the growing presence of Patient-centered Medical Home practices and the need for patient participation, it is concerning that tools to improve patient participation are not widely used in primary care. Despite demonstrated effect on decision quality and patient satisfaction, decision aids (DAs) are not broadly utilized. We conducted focus groups to examine the use of DAs and uncovered barriers to greater DA utilization in primary care. METHODS: The University of California, San Diego family medicine clinics use an integrated process to prescribe DA videos. We conducted provider and patient focus groups to explore use of DAs in three clinics. Using a qualitative phenomenological design, we analyzed thematic content using immersion techniques. RESULTS: Focus group discussions identified six categories: patient benefits, physician benefits, process improvements needed, reasons DAs are prescribed, barriers to watching DAs, and the role of the DA. These categories encompassed 21 themes. Four themes were salient for improving DA utilization: follow-up process needs improvement, prescribing process needs improvement, patients were unclear regarding each DA's purpose, and patient benefits. CONCLUSIONS: While previous studies have described expected barriers to hypothetical DA distribution, our analysis reveals barriers reported by physicians, staff, and patients based on actual experience in practice. Decision aids can improve patient participation in health decisions. However, physicians and patients have to recognize a need for these tools before they will be adopted in practice.

Continuing professional development for interprofessional teams supporting patients in healthcare decision making.

Healthcare professionals and organizations, policy makers, and the public are calling for safe and effective care that is centered on patients' needs, values, and preferences. The goals of interprofessional shared decision making and decision support are to help patients and professionals agree on choices that are effective, health promoting, realistic, and consonant with patients' and professionals' values and preferences. This requires collaboration among professionals and with patients and their family caregivers. Continuing professional development is urgently needed to help healthcare professionals acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to create and sustain a culture of collaboration. We describe a model that can be used to design, implement, and evaluate continuing education curricula in interprofessional shared decision making and decision support. This model aligns curricular goals, objectives, educational strategies, and evaluation instruments and strategies with desired learning and organizational outcomes. Educational leaders and researchers can institutionalize such curricula by linking them with quality improvement and patient safety initiatives.

Diverticular disease: diagnosis and treatment.

Diverticular disease refers to symptomatic and asymptomatic disease with an underlying pathology of colonic diverticula. Predisposing factors for the formation of diverticula include a low-fiber diet and physical inactivity. Approximately 85 percent of patients with diverticula are believed to remain asymptomatic. Symptomatic disease without inflammation is a diagnosis of exclusion requiring colonoscopy because imaging studies cannot discern the significance of diverticula. Fiber supplementation may prevent progression to symptomatic disease or improve symptoms in patients without inflammation. Computed tomography is recommended for diagnosis when inflammation is present. Antibiotic therapy aimed at anaerobes and gram-negative rods is first-line treatment for diverticulitis. Whether treatment is administered on an inpatient or outpatient basis is determined by the clinical status of the patient and his or her ability to tolerate oral intake. Surgical consultation is indicated for disease that does not respond to medical management or for repeated attacks that may be less likely to respond to medical therapy and have a higher mortality rate. Prompt surgical consultation also should be obtained when there is evidence of abscess formation, fistula formation, obstruction, or free perforation.