Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 10/6/25

Last week was a busy one. My already packed schedule was hit with meeting requests related to the US government shutdown.

There were discussions whether our organization should continue delivering telehealth services to Medicare beneficiaries. That led to talking about the pros and cons of telehealth in general.

Whether physicians like it or not, patients like it. I can’t imagine going back to a pre-2020 situation where all of our visits were conducted in person. Several of our practice locations added clinicians without adding exam rooms due to everyone having half days in which they deliver only virtual care, so that’s a win for lowering overhead.

Unfortunately, some juggling was needed to accommodate everyone’s clinic schedules, and not every clinician is thrilled. We will have to see how that shakes out over time.

I was also pulled in to deliver some unanticipated patient care after a colleague was injured and her backup was diagnosed with COVID. I did locum tenens coverage for this group and was still listed on their medical liability insurance policy, so I was happy to step in.

The practice is one of a growing number of Direct Primary Care sites, so they don’t have issues with credentialing or billing when they have to bring in outside coverage. It has been quite some time since I’ve used their EHR, but documentation was easy because I wasn’t worried about compliance with coding and billing metrics.

I was surprised by how many patients were more worried about their physicians than their own health issues. Most wanted me to pass along their wishes to get well soon. I’m used to having patients be irritated or annoyed when schedules are altered or delays come up, so it was a refreshing change.

The weekend brought some cooler temperatures in my world. It was time to catch up on yard work, then spend a couple of hours making sure that I can remain a practicing physician in 2026 and beyond. I had to do my state license renewal and my DEA number renewal. I decided to tackle the most recent bunch of “continuing knowledge assessment” questions that released on October 1 rather than waiting until the end of the quarter as I usually do.

I had a little fun with it. I fired up a couple of AI tools to see if one was better at answering board-style questions. I tried a couple of approaches, including taking the question and distilling it down into a concise prompt versus using the question nearly verbatim. Both approaches seemed to deliver the same accuracy in results and took about the same time to provide an answer.

It made me wonder whether physicians who cut-and-paste to get their answers learn as much as those who read the questions in detail and create a custom prompt. I haven’t seen studies that address that specific approach, but it would be interesting to see if retention differs.

I changed my tactic after a few questions, trying to figure out ways to use AI tools while still getting a good learning experience. I used traditional tools to look for the answer, then used AI tools to validate the choice that I thought was correct. This made the process faster even though it took a little longer to create the prompts.

This particular module is pass-fail, but many physicians have that competitive streak and want to have a perfect score. I liked the idea that I was validating my thought process rather than just searching for the answer.

I’m big into environmentalism and sustainability, so I think about the impact of AI tools. A friend recently mentioned data center projects in her state that are being blocked because of environmental impacts. This got me thinking about my own information-seeking behaviors and whether I should be more diligent about using traditional tools where possible rather than just jumping to AI tools because they are at my fingertips. I’m conscious of the environmental impact of products I choose in my daily life, everything from yogurt to sunscreen, so being more mindful about information resources isn’t a big leap for me.

I’m off to Anaheim for the American Academy of Family Physicians FMX conference, which was formerly known as Family Medicine Experience. Unlike healthcare IT conferences, the main stage lineup doesn’t feature celebrities or businesspeople, but actual physicians, including 19th and 21st Surgeon General of the United States Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA. I have to admit I’ve had a little crush on him since he appeared with Elmo teaching us not only how to cough into our elbows, but also about the importance of regular preventive visits and vaccines. You can bet I’ll be in fangirl mode.

Who would you like to see speaking on a conference main stage? What would you like to hear them cover? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.