Technological advancements are shaking up healthcare as we know it.
Issada Thongtrangan, MD, an orthopedic and neurological spine surgeon at MicroSpine in Scottsdale, Ariz., connected with Becker's to discuss the healthcare disruptors he is most excited about.
Note: This response has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Dr. Issada Thongtrangan: As a spine surgeon and a small business owner, the disruptors that I am excited about can be categorized into two aspects: patient care and practice management.
Patient care: Some of the disruptors in the spine arena are new technologies such as endoscopic spine surgery, robotic-assisted spine surgery, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, etc. There will be migration of surgeries to the ASC as more spine surgeries can be done safely using minimally invasive or ultra-minimally invasive surgery.
Practice management: I am excited to see the integration of AI or ChatGPT into the EMR systems so that physicians have access to the patient's records no matter where they are. Also, the doctors can share the records instantly (if we need to). However, we have to have rules and regulations as the data has to be protected. I am sure that AI and ChatGPT will play a significant role in the clinical aspects, but it will not be ready for prime time in the next 5 to 6 years.