Research to Improve Clinical Care in Family Medicine: Big Data, Telehealth, Artificial Intelligence, and More

J Am Board Fam Med. 2024 Mar-Apr;37(2):161-164. doi: 10.3122/jabfm.2024.240050R0.

Abstract

This issue highlights changes in medical care delivery since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and features research to advance the delivery of primary care. Several articles report on the effectiveness of telehealth, including its use for hospital follow-up, medication abortion, management of diabetes, and as a potential tool for reducing health disparities. Other articles detail innovations in clinical practice, from the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to a validated simple risk score that can support outpatient triage decisions for patients with COVID-19. Notably one article reports the impact of a voluntary program using scribes in a large health system on physician documentation behaviors and performance. One article addresses the wage gap between early-career female and male family physicians. Several articles report on inappropriate testing for common health problems; are you following recommendations for ordering Pulmonary Function Tests, mt-sDNA for colon cancer screening, and HIV testing?

Publication types

  • Introductory Journal Article
  • Editorial

MeSH terms

  • Artificial Intelligence*
  • Big Data*
  • COVID-19* / epidemiology
  • Family Practice* / methods
  • Family Practice* / organization & administration
  • Humans
  • Pandemics
  • Primary Health Care / methods
  • Primary Health Care / organization & administration
  • Quality Improvement
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Telemedicine* / methods
  • Telemedicine* / organization & administration