Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is everywhere now, and it's changing how people work. See how you can use it in your veterinary practice.
The Use of AI in Veterinary Medicine
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming veterinary medicine by automating and streamlining medical record-keeping, allowing veterinary staff to focus more on patient care. AI-powered tools are helping veterinary staff by documenting patient visits, summarizing communications with pet parents and other veterinary professionals, and assisting with the creation of documents such as discharge forms, educational articles, surgical reports, and treatment plans. These tools have been extremely helpful in reducing administrative burdens and improving efficiency.
It is important to understand that while AI can help you to do your job more efficiently, it will never do your job FOR you. AI-generated records are becoming the way of the future. Artificial intelligence is pretty amazing, but it still makes mistakes. There will likely never be a time when AI-generated documents will not require some degree of editing. Knowing and expecting this is the key to your success with the use of AI in your practice.
AI is improving daily, so you can expect that any grievances you may have with its use right now will not be an issue for very long.
Tips and tricks you can use to assist the AI in generating better results:
- The more detail, the better. When you don’t give the AI enough information to do its’ job, it will tend to “make things up”. This is known as a hallucination. To avoid this, always try to give the AI more information rather than less.
- Giving the AI direction is never a bad thing. If your medical records seem to be lacking information or it is being placed in the wrong spot, consider the way you are presenting the information. For example, during your exam, you may not be used to speaking all of your findings out loud. In order for the AI to create a more detailed record, you may need to verbalize anything you are seeing in order for it to be accurately documented.
- Ensure that you have a good-quality microphone. Your smartphone’s microphone is very capable of recording high-quality audio, but if you are using a desktop computer or laptop, you may need to invest in a better microphone. If the microphone can’t hear what you are saying, it may lead to errors or missing information in your records.
- Try to speak in complete sentences. It is easier for the AI to understand context this way.