Geoffrey Sklar, MD, on integrating AI in a way that augments urologic care

In this video, Geoffrey N. Sklar, MD, FACS, recaps a session from the 2024 Stronger United Conference in Phoenix, Arizona titled, “Artificial Intelligence in Urology”. Sklar is the chief medical officer for Chesapeake Urology and United Urology Group.

Video Transcript:

Artificial intelligence is here; it's not going away. There are a lot of angles on artificial intelligence from looking at it for imaging, for pathology, for even endoscopy. There's now artificial intelligence colonoscopy out there. It won't be long before we have artificial intelligence-guided cystoscopy, ureteroscopy, those kinds of things. How do we bring those things in our practice and not add to the cost or delay the therapy, but enhance the therapy? That was the goal of looking at that.

There are other types of AI that are coming out as well, things to help workflow. Things like virtual scribes, meaning you have a device in the room that listens to the discussion between the physician and the patient and helps generate the notes to decrease the work of the physician and accurately document what was said between the patient and the physician. There are a lot of systems like that that are out there. The interesting thing about all of them is they're very expensive. There is a little component of overpromising and underdelivering, because they say that it may decrease your staff. Now, we don't really want to get rid of our staff. We love our staff. That's what keeps us where we are, keeps us efficient, keeps us taking great care. So, our goal is how do we bring this in in a reasonable way that provides some advantage to the physician and to the patient.

One of the biggest complaints from patients is they hate it when doctors sit in front of a computer and type while they're in the room. They want that 1 to 1 experience, so that they feel that somebody listened to them. I think that's what all these goals are to get that technology. I would say we're not quite there. We're getting there. We have tried 3 or 4 of these types [of] platforms. We're going to try more, because we do feel that we need to get there. I think people who are just saying, "we're not going to go to AI at this point," you're going to fall behind the bus here. I do think you need to stay ahead. It's not cheap, even to do a trial. They typically want you to pay something to do a trial. I think this is the future, and if we don't go down that path and we don't explore, we're not going to make it better for us and for the patients.

This transcript was AI generated and edited by human editors for clarity.