AI in Medical Practice: A Guide for Doctors
Alexis Vervondel · February 10, 2025
The problem of documentation overload
A general practitioner spends an average of 2 hours per day on documentation: consultation reports, prescriptions, specialist referral letters, insurance forms. That’s time stolen from patients.
What AI can do for you
Consultation transcription and summary
Tools like Nabla or custom solutions can transcribe a consultation in real-time and automatically generate a structured summary. The practitioner only needs to validate and correct.
Letter drafting assistance
AI generates letters to specialists or patients from a few notes. Tone, level of detail, and format can be customized to match your habits.
Bibliographic research
LLMs allow quick access to recent medical literature, synthesizing clinical practice guidelines, and identifying therapeutic options for complex cases.
Essential precautions
- Never delegate diagnosis to AI: it assists, it doesn’t decide
- Check for hallucinations: LLMs can invent references — always verify sources
- HDS/HIPAA compliance: health data must be hosted on certified servers
Where to start?
First test on low-risk tasks: administrative letter drafting, bibliographic summaries. Gradually integrate into your clinical workflow.