Artificial intelligence has been an increasingly popular talking point among spine and orthopedic leaders, but it might not take its hold as rapidly, one CEO said.
"[A] trend that I am watching is the continued evolution of AI and large language models in the healthcare space," Andrew Lovewell, CEO at Columbia (Mo.) Orthopaedic Group, said. "At this point, the jury is out on the full use case in many settings that we work in today."
Spine technologies such as Holo AI leverage machine learning to assist with clinical decision-making. Large orthopedic groups including New York City-based Hospital for Special Surgery are also looking for ways to advance AI and machine learning.
Mr. Lovewell said that despite the hype, he doesn't anticipate an immediate transformation.
"There is a lot of excitement and discussion about the future of medicine and the way it will look given this technological boom that we are experiencing," he said. "However, I don't look for things to change as rapidly as some are predicting."
But there's one element that could quicken the adoption of AI in the healthcare space.
"Healthcare has been one of the slowest adopters of evolving technologies or principles due to the regulatory burden and the cost curve that exists," Mr. Lovewell said. "If we could find a way to bend the cost curve on cutting-edge technologies, I would expect the deployment and use of AI and large language models to increase exponentially. In fact, as more companies develop AI, machine learning, and LLM, I do believe we will see the cost burden lessen as things become more of a commodity in our space."