Survey finds GP practices embracing AI amid safety, privacy concerns

Detailed summary

A survey of nearly 80 GP practices owned by primary health organisation ProCare shows almost all of them are using artificial intelligence, with only 1 percent saying they don't…

A survey of nearly 80 GP practices owned by primary health organisation ProCare shows almost all of them are using artificial intelligence, with only 1 percent saying they don't and don't intend to.

Despite the high uptake, barriers named by respondents include safety, privacy and cost.

The survey was run by ProCare, the country's largest primary health organisation (PHO), which owns 131 practices.

When members were asked if any of their staff were using AI in their work, 95 percent said yes. Only 5 percent said no, with 4 percent saying they were considering it, and a little over 1 percent saying they were not using it nor considering it.

Bindi Norwell, ProCare's chief executive, said the number of clinics using AI turned out to be higher than she thought.

"I think we're always going to find those practices and clinicians who just don't, [and] are not interested in using it," she said.

"What we're trying to do is just to make sure that we provide confidence and support and tools for practices to make sure they're using AI in a very safe way."

More than 40 respondents were using free clinical scribes such as Heidi and Nabla, just under 40 were using the paid versions, and a few fewer were using free AI programmes such as Copilot and ChatGPT.

Others were using tools for patient communications, clinical decision support and administration tasks - "All of the things that take them away from patients and can help make life easier for themselves and their patients," Norwell said.

Opening of the article, excerpted from RNZ. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.