Retired DO Gets Real About AI
February 2025 | Vol. 69, No. 1
Written by Barry L. Marks, DO, PCOM class of 1977
In 1978, I opened an office in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. I was board-certified in family medicine, with a focus on internal medicine. I took care of the people in the neighborhood – policeman, fireman, reporters and more. Everyone was welcome; and when cell phones were invented, they all got my cell number.
I got permission to sit with the geriatric medicine fellows for their board exam, and I received a Certificate of Added Qualification (CAQ) in Geriatric Medicine.
I was a hospitalist before there were hospitalists. I took care of my own hospital patients during my career, and other physicians referred their patients to me. I had a hospital census of about 20 patients at a time from 1978-2007.
From the beginning, my wife, Lisa, worked with me, first in an administrative role. Later, she went to nursing school and then completed the Nurse Practitioner program at Jefferson. We were able to take care of a lot of people together. We had a terrific symbiotic relationship, and it was a wonderful experience.
In 2007, Einstein Hospital bought my practice and hired me. I continued seeing patients in my Germantown office. During that time, I also worked for Einstein in several roles including Associate Medical Director of Outpatient Clinics, Medical Director of Quality and Compliance for Einstein Community Health Associates, and Medical Director of Patient Experience.
I was a champion of Electronic Medical Records, and I taught it to all the different practices, as well as nurses and advanced practitioners. These roles allowed me to go beyond my medical practice to help the greater good – and the larger community. It was very gratifying. In the end, Einstein wanted to relocate me from my Germantown practice to an office in another part of the city. I wasn’t interested in that plan, and I decided it was the right time to retire.
This was in January 2020 – and then along came COVID. My wife and I went to Ocean City, NJ, where we have a vacation home, and we stayed there – alone and safe – for four months. We played bridge online several times a week; it was good “exercise” for my brain, and I met a lot of nice people
I’m an avid reader, and during this time I picked up The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson. It’s the biography of Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna, who developed CRISPR-Cas9, a groundbreaking technology for gene editing.
I was fascinated. I went on LinkedIn to find like-minded people who were interested in CRISPR. They were talking about artificial intelligence, because there are some 5 million genomes in the body, and you need AI to decipher it all.
I wanted to learn more, and I was thrilled to come across The American Board of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (ABAIM). https://abaim.org It was founded in 2015 by Dr. Anthony Chang, a pediatric cardiologist and pioneer in AI in medicine.
Every Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m. I participate in ABAIM’s “office hours.” People from around the world gather online to discuss what they’re doing in AI. I’ve learned about Gemini 2.0, Google’s new AI model, and its implementation in medical education. I found out that Epic, the Electronic Health Record system that so many of us use, has added AI features, including one that automatically drafts responses to patient messages.
I thought I was pretty skilled at reading EKGs, but I wasn’t as good as I thought: AI can read an EKG in so much more depth than I could ever do – and it can predict future happenings. AI-assisted radiology can spot 35% more cancers than a radiologist can, and it can look at the thickness of the pancreatic tail to see swelling that’s representative of cancer, which greatly increases early detection.
I wanted to be certified in Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, so I took the two courses required by ABAIM. I studied the study guides like I did back in college. I took the tests, but I didn’t pass on my first try.
“You’re so close, keep it up,” Dr. Chang reassured me.
In November, I went to Orlando to attend AIMed 24, the organization’s annual global summit. I heard speakers from the fields of medicine, tech, software, education, and business. Everyone there had so much passion about the field. https://aimed.swoogo.com/GS24
The AMA and the AOA are both on board. They believe that artificial intelligence won’t replace doctors, but it will give us a lot of tools to work with. In the Feb. 2024 issue of The DO publication, Drs. David Shumway and Cole Zanetti wrote an article titled, “The Future of AI in medicine is Osteopathic.” It began: “Since Andrew Taylor Still, DO, MD, flung to the breeze the banner of osteopathy in 1874, dreaming of a different and better way to practice medicine, our profession has been interested in the future and not afraid to walk on the cutting edge.” https://thedo.osteopathic.org/2024/02/the-future-of-ai-in-medicine-is-osteopathic/
There are plenty of newspaper headlines about the dangers of AI – if it were used maliciously – so it’s not surprising that some people are frightened. It’s like when electricity was first introduced in the 19th century – and many people were too afraid to use it!
I was in the jewelry business before med school, and then I was a doctor for four decades – and I know that things change. I never got upset about it. I tried to deal with changes head on… and I liked when I could help other people to understand the changes a little better.
I recently turned 78. People have asked me, “Why would you want to do this at this stage of your life?” The answer is because I’m intrigued by this. I’m not at techie. I’m not a data scientist; I don’t know linear algebra. It’s like learning a new language. You get the basics and move into the next level. I now have a beginner’s understanding of concepts like algorithms, machine learning, convoluted neural networks, deep learning, and Large Language Models (like ChatGPT) that are used in the AI space.
I don’t know how they do it, but I’m beginning to understand how it works, and I enjoy seeing the amazing things that artificial intelligence can do. And the more I study and take courses, the better my memory is getting overall. I’m not forgetting things.
I like to consider myself a lifelong learner. I have all this knowledge that I’ve gained through my medical career. I trained Temple residents and PCOM residents for years. I’m proud of that and appreciative, too, because it was a learning experience. The residents thanked me for teaching them; I replied that they had taught me as well.
Artificial intelligence is in its infancy; it’s not perfect at this moment, but I believe it can be an amazing tool that would democratize the office visit. You wouldn’t be tied to your keyboard; the computer could take in the information and give you a report. It could possibly help family medicine practitioners with diagnostic dilemmas in radiology, oncology, cardiology, GI and more.
For now, I’m simply enjoying learning about AI. People ask what I plan to do with all this knowledge. I don’t know. At this time, I’m not tied to any outcome. I don’t know if – and what – I might be interested in doing with what I’ve learned.
I am among the oldest of the participants in the AI office hours. That was the case at the Orlando conference as well, where I felt welcomed and included. At that meeting, Dr. Chang inspired me: “You have wisdom. You have knowledge. You can aid someone doing AI in so many ways,” he said.
I look forward to what the future holds. |
