Mike Magee
I read with interest, Dr. Rachael Bedard’s September 25, 2026 New York Times article titled “Being a Doctor Will Never Be the Same After A.I.” In her second paragraph she writes “Amid our recent doom cycle about whether A.I. will lead to extreme societal harms, a parallel anxiety has taken hold in medicine about whether A.I. will one day replace physicians.”
Dr. Bedard self-identifies as a primary care physician trained in internal medicine, geriatrics and palliative care. Her practice focuses on the special challenges of homeless and incarcerated elders. She is also heavily involved in political advocacy for pro-choice health policy.
But her Opinion piece mainly considered the impact of AI on current medical students and residents in training.
In her view, “It’s impractical and counterproductive to train physicians in 2026 without exposure to A.I. Doctoring . . .”
Her words seem to reinforce my own bias that physicians are increasingly distancing themselves from the human side of health care, finding it easier (and less messy physically and emotionally) to focus on diagnosis, treatment options, and chronic care team management within the confines of a work week closer to 40 hours than 80 hours as in the past.
Internet connectivity and AI efficiency certainly make this migration more realistic. But even before AI, patient empowerment and ready data access encouraged patients to self-manage many of their own health care decisions. In addition, urgent care and pharmacy based clinics filled the gap left by uneven access to care that occurred as more and more physicians became employees of merging corporate health care organizations and the numbers of primary care physicians necessary for ready patient access lagged behind demand.
Physicians salaries have risen to $280,000 a year as numbers of primary care physicians declined with projected shortages by 2038 of 24% for Family Medicine and 17% for Internal Medicine. Their work hours are more reasonable, but over 1/2 reported “burnout”, complaining of excessive paperwork, medical school debt, being hostage to patient satisfaction scores, and work/life balance issues (women 56%, men 44%). Too many bureaucratic tasks topped the list of complaints at 62%, while lack of respect from patients was near the bottom of their concerns at 22%.
As for solutions, what would bring them psychic relief? Increased compensation (48%), more support staff (47%), more flexible work schedules (46%), increased physician autonomy (41%), more respect from administrators (35%), lighter patient loads (33%).
These days, there are approximately as many nurse practitioners and physicians associates delivering primary care as there are physicians. This is quite remarkable as these “physician extenders” were largely absent a quarter of a century ago. There are about 1000 physicians per thousand population currently compared to 700 NPs and 200 PAs per thousand citizens. And about 1/3 of these none-physician health professionals feel burned out themselves. As one reported in a recent survey, “Healthcare in general is stressful. Insurance companies are impossible, and people are never possible.” 15% of male PAs, and 10% of women PAs are “considering leaving medicine altogether.”
Add to this complex health professional mix two other elements: 1) Health delivery performance, and 2) AI integration.
On performance, US healthcare remains a hot mess, especially when it comes to maternal/fetal care. Consider this chart from HRSA Health Workforce study in December, 2025. Our lifespan lags behind comparators by 3 to 4 years. But that’s nothing compared to maternal and infant mortality which are startlingly high at 22.3 and 5.6 deaths per live birth.
Will an AI infusion into America’s health professional programs help. Dr. Bedard thinks so. She writes: “A.I. Doctoring — as opposed to writing, my other work — is not a creative act that needs to be protected from technological annexation. It’s a service that ought to embrace any resource that improves patient care. Training doctors in the A.I. age, then, means training them to think critically with a machine in the loop, for a speculative future of medicine that we can only glimpse.”
A machine in the loop? Social scientists might argue that point, believing that the human transfer of compassion, understanding, and partnership treats the patient and the health professional’s burnout simultaneous, and also helps create civil and stable societies that mange fear levels while promoting hopefulness.
