Medical providers and hospitals have used artificial intelligence (“AI”) in the everyday practice of medicine for years. The best example is the use of Best Practice Alerts, or BPA’s. The lawyers at Robenalt Law have used BPA’s effectively to demonstrate that medical providers at times will ignore these critical alerts that are made with the use of AI. What could be more compelling? The computer system analyzes the complaints and the vital signs and makes suggestions to medical providers that come in the form of BPA’s. These alerts pop up on the medical provider screens to alert the medical providers, for example, that the patient might have sepsis. The audit trail of the electronic medical record (EMR) will demonstrate who got the alert and who viewed the alert. These BPA’s if ignored by the medical providers give lawyers ammunition to argue that the best practices were not followed.

In addition, hospitals and medical providers use AI to streamline tasks like taking notes during patient visits, scanning images to identify potential issues, double-checking prescriptions, and predicting which patients might be at higher risk for complications. However, AI is being adopted into practice more quickly than laws and standards of practice can keep up. This phenomenon creates difficult questions about the ethical use of AI and who is liable when the AI system makes a mistake.

What Is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science that uses machines to perform tasks that traditionally required human intelligence and input. AI can analyze and evaluate vast amounts of data and complete tasks that would normally require human input and decision-making.

The rapid adoption of AI has influenced many aspects of everyday life, including the delivery of healthcare services. While the integration of AI into medical practice has the potential to improve efficiency and accuracy, its use is not without legal and ethical challenges.

Integrating AI Into the Modern Practice of Medicine

Charting has long been one of the most time-consuming aspects of clinical practice. Today, healthcare providers use AI to streamline their documentation of patient care. However, AI systems are not 100% reliable. A misheard word or lack of context can introduce errors that can negatively impact safety and cause patient harm. There are also concerns about patient privacy and how securely AI systems store private patient information.

AI is also changing how physicians provide care, influencing how they analyze symptoms to diagnose a patient’s condition and the type of treatment they recommend. Physicians are still expected to meet the standard of care by exercising independent judgment, even when using AI systems. However, if a physician’s reliance on AI results in patient harm, questions arise as to who is liable. Is the physician liable for failure to exercise independent judgment? Could the AI system or its developer be responsible for producing an inaccurate result? These questions could have important implications for medical malpractice cases and could push them towards a new type of product defect claim.

AI Is Changing the Landscape of Medical Malpractice Cases

The integration of AI into the practice of medicine even has the potential to change the standard of care. As the use of AI systems becomes more common, the expectation of what constitutes “reasonable care” is beginning to shift.

Deepika Srivastava, CEO of The Doctors Company, the largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurance company in the United States, has stated that medical malpractice involving the use of AI has likely already occurred and will continue to occur as the integration of AI into the practice of medicine becomes more commonplace. She notes that the use of AI is changing the way medicine is practiced. As the adoption of AI increases, “the reasonable physician standard of care should evolve…Not using AI could be seen as negligent. While today relying on it too heavily may be considered careless.”

Physicians are not currently being held liable for failure to use AI. However, as AI becomes more fully integrated into medical practice, using it could quickly become the standard of care.

Using AI to Streamline Medical Malpractice Investigations

Healthcare systems, insurance adjusters, and attorneys are using AI to streamline investigations into claims of medical malpractice.

AI has automated the analysis of Electronic Medical Records (EMR), improving the efficiency and accuracy of investigations into medical malpractice claims. AI can analyze vast amounts of data, streamlining workflows, reducing errors, and improving patient care. Integrating AI into EMR management ensures healthcare providers have access to accurate and complete patient histories, which should enhance and improve medical decision-making.

Healthcare providers can use AI to detect patterns in clinical documentation, identify inconsistencies, and provide evidence-based recommendations to improve patient safety. In the meantime, medical malpractice attorneys and claims adjusters can use AI to better identify situations in which a practitioner failed to meet the standard of care. As an analytical tool, AI has the potential to expedite legal proceedings and improve objectivity when determining whether a healthcare provider committed malpractice.

Robenalt Law: Combining Legal Expertise with Emerging AI Technology

The rapid adoption of AI creates exciting possibilities. However, the effective use of this new tool continues to rely on professional judgment and the ability to use it ethically and proficiently.

Robenalt Law is positioned at the forefront of the emerging use of AI in medical malpractice cases, and have been using the best practice alerts for years for the benefit of our clients.. We remain committed to providing aggressive legal representation to individuals and families who have been harmed by medical negligence.

Contact Robenalt Law Today

The medical malpractice attorneys at Robenalt Law have decades of experience representing injured people. With offices in Cleveland and Columbus, we handle medical malpractice claims throughout Ohio and nationwide. Call our Cleveland office at (216) 223-7535 or our Columbus office at (614) 695-3800 or contact us online to schedule a free, confidential, no-obligation appointment to discuss your situation and how we can help.