Viewpoints: US Policies Hinder Needed Immigrant Doctors; Here’s How PCPs Hope To Collaborate With AI
Editorial writers tackle immigrant doctors, AI in health care, mental health, and more.
The U.S. needs more doctors, and there is no getting around the fact that we are going to need many of them to be immigrants. (Shahryar Rana, 5/21)
I am both excited and terrified by the entrance of artificial intelligence into my primary care practice. AI鈥檚 enormous potential to help clinicians become more focused on patients, available, diagnostically accurate, and efficient feels like a dream. Yet memories of the nightmarish introduction of the electronic heath record into clinicians鈥 work lives looms like a dark cloud. (Jeffrey Millstein, 5/21)
My team at The Trevor Project, the nation's leading provider of suicide prevention and crisis intervention services for LGBTQ youth, released our 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health and Well-being of LGBTQ+ Young People. Commensurate to previous years' findings, we see that LGBTQ young people have much higher rates of considering or attempting suicide than their straight and cisgender peers; 39 percent of LGBTQ young people seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year鈥攊ncluding 46 percent of transgender and nonbinary young people. (Ronita Nath, 5/20)
Let's think about the perspective of a new nurse鈥攖hey went through years of rigorous studies (mostly in the classroom), passed a major exam, were elated and ready for practice but were then thrust into the chaos of a hospital environment. Multiple patients, interruptions, and administrative duties make a recipe for quick burnout and error. Unsurprisingly, nearly 18 percent of these dedicated professionals leave the profession within their first year, overwhelmed by the demands at the bedside after finding it doesn't match up with what they expected in clinical practice. (Tim Bristol, 5/20)
鈥淭elehealth is collapsing.鈥 鈥淭elehealth is going through a contraction.鈥 鈥淭here is a dark cloud hovering over virtual care.鈥 These are just a few of the doomsday views sparked by the news that Optum and Walmart are shutting down their virtual care businesses. (Owen Tripp and Robin Glass, 5/21)