Main image courtesy of Center for Orthopedic Surgery & Sports Center.

If you’ve ever had an injury due to sports or an accident that’s affected your bones and joints, then it’s likely that you’ve seen an orthopedic doctor. These specialists can help with all kinds of issues related to musculoskeletal system, and have increasingly included AI to assist them in a variety of ways, which raises crucial questions, including:

• Where is AI in orthopedics right now?
• What are the benefits of including AI?
• Will AI replace orthopedic doctors?

These are important issues that are having an impact on patients right now, which is why we think it’s necessary to delve into these topics!

Where is AI in orthopedics right now?

AI is showing up in a lot of different places, including orthopedics

AI has been steadily making its way into the medical field, to the benefit of both clinicians and patients. Thanks to its ability to learn from vast amounts of medical data, AI is very helpful to orthopedic doctors in all kinds of ways. Although we know that AI can assist with clerical tasks such as streamlining workflows, transcribing notes, and automating the patient experience, did you know it’s also making a big difference in how orthopedic doctors diagnose and treat their patients?

• Better diagnostic support. A field like orthopedics relies a lot on diagnostic images like x-rays and MRIs. Experienced orthopedic doctors are trained to find abnormalities like tears, fractures, or tumors, but need time to examine the image. Not to mention there are only so many these specialists can scrutinize in a day. 

AI can scan the same images in a much shorter amount of time, and with a comparable degree of accuracy. Some AI models can even search for multiple issues at a time, such as both a tear and a fracture. Another area where AI is assisting in diagnostic support is with implant identification, plotting the site for an implant, as well as implant removal. There is software available now that can do all of these essential functions with the same or higher degrees of accuracy as orthopedic specialists. 

• Assistance during surgery. Orthopedic surgeons are already aware of how helpful AI can be when it comes to surgical procedures. AI can plot out areas for precise cuts that will allow the procedure to proceed with minimal tissue damage and ideally less recovery time for patients. AI systems also monitor and follow along throughout the surgical process giving the surgeon updates in real time, and ensuring that the orthopedic doctor stays on the surgery path that was outlined pre-surgery.

There are some instances where AR (augmented reality) may provide assistance as well, putting a virtual layer on top of where the surgery is taking place to increase the accuracy and precision of the clinician. AI applications already help surgeons through complicated procedures like knee and hip replacements, and they will only get better over time.

• Help with diagnosis. When a patient is treated by an orthopedic doctor, they have to weigh all kinds of variables in order to determine the best course of action. Things like medical history, genetics, and lifestyle can have an impact on how a patient may respond to care. AI can assist orthopedic doctors in this area because they can quickly and accurately compare the patient’s personalized information against massive amounts of data to determine what treatment has the biggest likelihood of success. 

Not only can AI lay out treatment plans that should deliver the greatest benefit to the patient, but it can also predict the amount of time it may take for the patient to recover, how long the hospital stay might be, as well as the possibility of complications arising. While the AI can help determine the best course of action, it is up to the orthopedic doctor to decide.

• Data analysis to get better. AI achieves its results by utilizing machine learning, natural language processing, and recognizing patterns. As it is continually fed more data, it can get better at predicting outcomes for patients and help orthopedic doctors determine the best type of treatment. Data needs to come from a variety of sources, as it’s essential that AI is exposed to all kinds of information to widen its scope and reduce the chances of bias.

• Patient support. In addition to providing an easy way for patients to provide feedback and for clinicians to do follow ups, AI can monitor and support patients post-surgery. There are wearable devices (such as WalkAI) that can monitor the gait of a patient after surgery to ensure they’re meeting their recovery targets, as well as apps that can integrate with smart watches and phones to educate and monitor patient progress during recovery. 

The benefits of incorporating AI

What are some of the advantages of using more AI in healthcare?

Now that you can see how AI is already helping specialists like orthopedic doctors treat their patients, it’s helpful to discuss how AI can provide a lot of advantages to all healthcare fields in order to improve care and provide better treatment for injuries and illnesses.

Improved patient care and experience

Because AI can move at greater speeds and can digest so much more information than a human, it has been very successful at improving diagnoses across healthcare fields. As we noted with orthopedic doctors, AI can analyze diagnostics accurately and quickly, helping providers identify a problem sooner. But it can also help improve the doctor/patient relationship in areas like patient encounters. There is AI technology (like Playback Health) available that can help automate notes and documentation for physicians so they are able to concentrate on their patient during the encounter.

When a patient feels like their provider is listening to them and not distracted with typing information into their medical record, they are more likely to have a favorable experience. Automating processes like this is also beneficial to clinicians who are at or near burn out. Providers want to focus on their patients, and not be bogged down with extra hours each day of clerical work. Taking this essential task away from them and putting it in the capable hands of AI is a great way to improve patient care. 

Personalized treatment

Treatment plans, no matter what healthcare field, are not a one size fits all answer. Every patient has different personal variables, which need to be taken into consideration when providers create a plan of care. AI can take these factors and create a treatment plan that is personalized to that patient, and is likely to offer them the best chance of recovery. It is able to do this by weighing the patient’s variables against voluminous amounts of other patients’ data, and analyzing the risk/result of how those procedures turned out. 

Wearable AI also has the ability to track patients' health vitals, whether they’re in surgery, post-surgery, or are in the recovery process. 

Lowers costs

There are AI applications that can streamline the entire workflow of a healthcare facility, lessening the reliance on paperwork or processes that aren’t as efficient as they could be. You’ll also find AI improving the medical coding and billing procedure that every facility uses. Relying on AI to find the appropriate codes (as well as those that are most likely to be approved by insurance) can save facilities of all sizes money, and ensure steady financial footing. 

While there will be some jobs affected by AI in order to lower costs and make processes more efficient, it means that the humans in those positions will be elevated to supervisory roles. By limiting the amount of medical billers/coders as well as medical scribes, AI will take over the tedious tasks of everyday issues, but still flag complex cases or other issues for human follow up. 

Better surgical outcomes

Having AI’s assistance in planning a surgery path, as well as being a guide throughout it, is a major benefit to surgeons. Not only can it assist with precision cutting and guidance, but it can also streamline the operating room’s workflow, monitor the vitals and signs from the patient, and even provide physicians with feedback as they progress.

Are there disadvantages?

AI is not meant to replace experienced medical professionals, but it has proven to be quite helpful in a variety of ways. There are some potential disadvantages that may manifest:

• AI is only as good as the data it is trained on, and if that data is biased, the information it provides may be skewed.
• When all sorts of sensitive information such as patient data is made available to these applications, there could be privacy concerns or security risks.
• Some healthcare facilities may struggle to come up with the cost of implementing a complex AI system. 

Will AI replace orthopedic doctors?

Orthopedic doctors aren’t going anywhere!

Some folks might be a little unnerved at the thought of AI’s presence only growing in healthcare, including orthopedics. The good news is that AI will not be replacing orthopedic doctors, although it will continue to assist them—and give patients the highest level of care possible.

Humans are necessary for healthcare

The provider/patient relationship is a very special one, and it cannot be replaced by machine learning or algorithms. Orthopedic doctors develop relationships with patients and want to help them improve their lives with the best treatment plans possible—whether it’s to fix a torn ligament, replace a hip, or get an athlete back into their game. AI can assist a physician and provide them with a list of potential treatment plans and outcomes, but only a human doctor can make the decision about what is right for each particular patient.

Patient care is the responsibility of the provider

Physicians, including orthopedic doctors, are ultimately responsible for all the care of the patient. They do not want to leave major decisions about a patient’s well-being in the hands of AI in case something went wrong. If there was a misdiagnosis or other mistake made, the doctor takes full responsibility since they are the ones who ultimately make the final decision. 

Over-reliance is not an option

AI won’t replace orthopedic doctors, as these experienced providers are the best people qualified to make life-changing decisions about patients’ care. Relying on AI to make important judgment calls is not the point of AI, nor is relying on it to do everything that an orthopedic doctor can. AI is best for assisting orthopedic doctors, providing options for potential treatment plans, as well as offering feedback.

Will any physicians be replaced by AI?

Just like orthopedic doctors, physicians of all specialities can benefit from the assistance of AI, but they should not need to worry about being replaced. AI is not being developed to replace doctors, it is one of many beneficial tools that healthcare teams can rely on. As we mentioned, healthcare is a very personal journey, and human doctors and their relationship with their patients is at the core of every treatment plan. 

AI is helpful for orthopedic doctors, but will not replace them

While we may think that something as sophisticated as AI will eventually replace orthopedic doctors, it is actually very unlikely. This type of specialized medicine requires a human touch as well as the decision making capabilities of an experienced provider. AI will continue to assist clinicians in all medical fields and in a variety of ways, including as ambient medical scribes, monitoring devices, and surgical assistance.