Veteran Two-Steps Forward, Doesn’t Look Back

| By: ERIN COULEHAN |

The road to recovery after an injury is often detoured by many factors that can be both discouraging and debilitating but one El Pasoan is demonstrating that it’s possible to take two-steps forward despite serious setbacks.

Jose Gonzalez is a local veteran who lost his leg post-service and has overcome many challenges on his road to recovery. Gonzalez has been receiving physical therapy at Fyzical Northwest El Paso, and was recently able to twostep after a prolonged wait for a prosthetic leg.

“We love to see people get back to their lives,” says Dr. Denise Campbell, CEO and owner of Fyzical Northwest El Paso. “People need to get back to what they love, and we help them love their lives again after a major trauma. We’re here to partner with people and let them get back their health. We bring in a lot of regional expertise with our doctors of physical therapy who also have a lot of postgraduate training.”

One of the main challenges when recovering from a major injury or trauma is overcoming the fear that it will happen again and trusting that joy will return, says Campbell.

“It’s very scary to walk on your leg -- your prosthetic leg -- for the first time. But even to think about dancing: the amount of serotonin, feel good vibes, and things you get by moving to a song you love.”

Campbell explains that she and her providers take a cognitive behavioral approach to physical therapy to help patients understand the ways pain is manifested.

For Gonzalez, recovery was delayed for a number of reasons. He suffered two falls while waiting for his prosthetic leg.

“I fell in my yard on the landscaping and it caused a three-inch cut and put me back about eight months,” he says.

The wound from the fall was at his amputation location, which caused additional mental and physical angst.

“At first I wanted to give up,” he says, “but I didn’t because they’re teaching me a lot.”

Campbell and Dr. Isabela Acosta, who is Gonzalez’s therapist, says they’ve been helping him take one step at a time.

“I have the best job in the world,” says Acosta. “I’ve been working with Mr. Gonzalez before he got his prosthetic leg, and it’s been so rewarding to see his progress.”

A lover of line-dancing, two-stepping, and honky tonks, Gonzalez recently regained his twostepping skills with Acosta as his dance partner.

“We did the two-step and that’s the first time I’ve been able to do that,” he says. “I was holding onto her, but not too tight.”

With his confidence regained, Gonzalez says he’s looking forward to hiking Mount Cristo Rey and going dancing at Little Bit of Texas.

“Tell the girls I’ll be back to dance soon,” he says.

It is no secret that the healthcare system is a mess! Access to healthcare is crucial in determining the quality of healthcare you receive: Do you have health insurance? Regardless of whether or not you have health insurance, can you schedule an appointment (average three-month wait) and figure out how to navigate the Tower of Babel that is the co-pays and referrals even if you do have health insurance?

What impact will AI-powered chatbots have on patient engagement beyond providing information to the patient?

Are there any potential impacts that artificial intelligence may have on the healthcare workforce, both in terms of job losses and new job opportunities? Being someone who played with technology once upon a time (as a Chief Medical Informatics Officer), I have always had a Pollyanna-ish view of how technology might be able to fix healthcare as we know it. As a speaker at TEDx 2015, I predicted that telehealth would change healthcare in the future, and COVID has been instrumental in making that prediction a reality. But I also hoped and believed that technology would improve how patients access healthcare information and how physicians adjust their workflows and schedules.

Since 2015, things have moved rather slowly, but to the rescue (or demise, depending on how you look at it) is ChatGPT(4) and the rise of AI (Artificial Intelligence). If you haven’t been buried under a rock or don’t have Long COVID (bad joke), you have probably heard that ChatGPT4 has exploded in the last few months. Everywhere you turn, pundits predict either a Renaissance or the end of humanity as we know it today. It’s not just ChatGPT(4) that’s doing it. The recent arrival of Bing from Microsoft, BARD from Google, and many other startups, including Glass Health, in the healthcare sector has created possibilities and possibly fears in the status quo. Better known as Large Language Models (LLM), ChatGPT and its cohorts are the current rage in the tech space. And they are improving, growing, and becoming ubiquitous at an alarming speed.

In terms of speed, how fast is fast? Well…OpenAI’s immensely popular chatbot ChatGPT broke the record for the fastestgrowing app in history, reaching an estimated 123 million monthly active users (MAUs) less than three months after launch. By comparison, TikTok took nine months to hit 100 million MAUs, and Instagram 2.5 years, according to a research note from UBS shared with AI Business).

But the real question for healthcare is: is this hype or hope? Can these AI tools change how you, the reader, engage with healthcare over the next few years?

It’s difficult to tease out now in these early days, but in April, an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) compared responses of physicians on Reddit to ChatGPT4 responses...and drum roll, please! ChatGPT4 did better! (Comparing Physician and Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Responses to Patient Questions Posted to a Public Social Media Forum)

Hate it or Love it, ChatGPT and its compadres will change technology interactions and affect Healthcare in the months and years to come. Here are some ways:

AI is expected to have a significant impact on the efficiency of healthcare in the coming years. With AI systems, routine tasks can be automated, freeing physicians and other healthcare professionals to focus on more complex cases. The use of artificial intelligence can result in a shorter wait time for patients and a more streamlined healthcare system as a result.

In addition to its potential benefits in healthcare, artificial intelligence can improve the field’s accuracy. AI systems can analyze large amounts of data quickly and accurately, which could lead to earlier diagnoses and more effective treatments. For example, AI-powered imaging software is as accurate as human radiologists in detecting certain types of cancer.

AI-powered chatbots can significantly impact patient access to healthcare information and resources. With the rise of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, many patients are now seeking care remotely, making accessing relevant information about their health and treatment options harder.

AI-driven chatbots can help bridge this gap by providing patients instant access to the necessary information. For example, a chatbot could be programmed to answer common questions about a particular condition. It could also provide information about medication side effects or assist with scheduling appointments.

In addition to providing information, chatbots also improve patient engagement. By providing personalized recommendations and reminders for things like medication management or follow-up appointments, chatbots could help patients stay on track with their care plans and improve outcomes.

What are the impact of new technologies on the healthcare workforce, and how will they affect it? There is no easy answer to this question. The fear among many healthcare professionals is that AI-powered systems could eventually replace human workers, leaving many healthcare professionals without a job.

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence will replace some jobs, such as middle management and white-collar hospital administrators (in my mind, thankfully). However, there will also be many new job opportunities created. Students in high school will be asked to design and maintain these systems.

As a practicing physician, I face an enormous amount of paperwork. AI has the potential to alleviate administrative burdens by automating routine tasks and freeing up time for more meaningful interactions with patients. Using artificial intelligence and ChatGPT to handle everyday administrative tasks can reduce the burden on physicians and healthcare providers. ChatGPT can handle patient intake forms, appointment reminders, and prescription refills, thus freeing up valuable time for the healthcare professional to concentrate on direct patient care and other higher-level responsibilities.

Recently, a bill to expand the Independent Practice Authority for Nurse Practitioners was introduced in the Texas Legislature. Even though I do not support the bill as written or the flawed logic that underlies it, there is one clear thing. With the advent of artificial intelligence, medical plans are no longer the sole domain of physicians.

With ChatGPT, you can complement your healthcare team by getting to know your symptoms, providing educational resources, and assisting with scheduling appointments by preliminary symptom assessment. As a result of this collaborative care approach, healthcare team members can focus on www.thecitymagazineelp.com providing hands-on care to patients.

With only a glance at Glass Health, one will be able to see that it provides a tool for the development of clinical plans that are based on basic prompts. It won’t be about knowledge but rather about who can manage teams of providers to provide the highest quality care. AI will determine winners and losers in this care. Consider WellMed and VillageMD on steroids -- powered by Artificial Intelligence and focused on quality!

Overall, although there are certain concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence on the healthcare workforce, it is clear that this technology can both create new opportunities for the healthcare workforce and improve patient health outcomes. Our elected officials must focus on how these technologies integrate into existing systems to benefit all stakeholders involved. They must not be limited to historical or parochial interests.

It is important to note that ChatGPT cannot replace the clinical expertise and comprehensive knowledge of healthcare professionals. It is a tool that assists and enhances their abilities rather than serving as a replacement for them.

Although so much is changing in the healthcare field, ironically, many things remain the same as well, such as fax machines! Yet, as technology continues to evolve into fascinating and often scary places at a dizzying pace, we may finally be on the cusp of experiencing a remarkable change in healthcare in the future as it evolves into fascinating and often scary places.

There is a question that I am often asked: “What will you do when artificial intelligence replaces your job?”

I firmly believe AI will not replace physicians, but physicians who use AI in the future will supplant those that don’t.