Priorities for Artificial Intelligence Applications in Primary Care: A Canadian Deliberative Dialogue with Patients, Providers, and Health System Leaders

Automate charting

Manage prescriptions (generation, refilling, forwarding)

Manage referrals

Mitigate provider burnout

Liberate time and cognitive freedom for:

• ∘ Direct, face-to-face patient interaction

• ∘ Discussions during a visit for patient goals, preferences, and circumstances

• ∘ Managing medical and social complexity

• ∘ Coordinating access to care for patients who face high barriers

Collect and verify patient information

Optimize staff and learner scheduling^†

Predict surges in visits to direct resource planning^†,§

Set an agenda before a visit by distilling patient concerns and taking partial histories

Assign concerns to management by virtual or in-person care modalities

Consider quality of life and functional impacts in determination of acuity^*

Help patients decide if they can safely self-manage a concern, and if not, what health services they require

Prioritized access to synchronous modality of care delivery for those at risk of decompensation, medical need

Greater convenience for patients who receive virtual care, especially those with mobility challenges or living rurally^*

Optimized provision of and access to care across delivery modalities

Decreased wait times^*

Synthesize administrative, clinical (eg, patient history, past treatments), biometric data, and other “sources of truth” (eg, evidence, guidelines) to guide diagnosis, treatment, and care planning of rare diseases and common conditions^†

Present guidance in real-time during a consult^†,§

Assist with management of medical complexity

Provide a “second opinion”; help providers “think outside the box”; transfer specialist knowledge into primary care

Improve speed and accuracy of diagnosis

Reduce trial-and-error treatments, uninformative or burdensome diagnostic tests, and multiple specialist referrals

Reduce rates of medical error

Identify patients who are at high risk of decompensation or loss to follow-up, particularly those who experience structural vulnerability^†,§

Recall patients with abnormal test results or those due for routine screening^†,§

Automate early referral to interprofessional care^†

Optimize contact with the provider to improve

• ∘ Care access

• ∘ Health equity

• ∘ Patient safety

• ∘ Team-based care^†

English-speaking

Online advertisements (Kijiji, social media channels) in 10 provinces

Aged 18 or older

Patient advisor distribution list^*

Visited PHC provider at least once in last year (virtual or in-person)

Any provider or administrative support person working in a PHC setting

Emailed invitation from Dr. Andrew Pinto (AP) to PHC colleagues interested in digital health or health informatics

Worked at least one clinical day per week

Emailed invitation from AP to practice colleagues^†

Online advertisements (social media channels, PHC research network news channels)