The experience that changed my path

When I entered medical school, I was drawn to surgery. I’ve always enjoyed solving problems, working with my hands and seeing the tangible results of what I do. Surgery seemed like a natural fit for the way I think and approach challenges. But during my second year of medical school, an experience I hadn’t anticipated changed the direction of my career.

I was rotating through a family practice clinic that also provided obstetric care when I had the opportunity to be part of my first labor and delivery. I was supposed to go home at 5 p.m., but I had become so engaged with the patient and what she was experiencing that I couldn’t imagine leaving before her baby arrived. So, I stayed. What I hadn’t expected was that I’d be given the opportunity to actually deliver her baby. It was 11:30 that night when she finally delivered a baby boy, and I knew I’d just experienced something that would stay with me for the rest of my life.

There was something incredibly special about being part of that moment. It wasn’t just the excitement of delivering a baby. It was the connection I’d made with the patient, the trust involved and the privilege of sharing such an important experience in her life. I walked away that night knowing I wanted more of that in my career.

OB-GYN gave me the surgical experience I loved, but it also offered something I hadn’t fully appreciated when I started medical school: the opportunity to build lasting relationships with patients, care for them through different stages of life and be present for some of their most meaningful moments. It turned out to be exactly the combination of hands-on medicine, problem-solving and human connection I was looking for.

From the exam room to healthcare technology

My years in clinical practice also gave me a firsthand understanding of the frustrations clinicians face every day. During my training at a high-risk obstetrics center, patients often arrived with complex medical histories and extensive records. We had to piece together critical information quickly, sometimes in situations where every minute mattered. I remember wishing there was an easier way to get the information we needed without having to dig through pages of documentation.

Once I became an attending physician, I spent countless evenings at the office long after everyone else had gone home, finishing notes, reviewing and signing off on lab results, and returning patient messages. The work didn’t end when the last patient left the office. There was always more to do, and much of it had little to do with the face-to-face patient care that drew me to medicine in the first place. Those experiences are a big part of why I do what I do today.

Having been on the clinical side, I understand how frustrating it can be when technology creates more work instead of making things easier. Technology should support the way clinicians practice medicine, not force them to change how they deliver care to accommodate the limitations and rigid workflows of the systems they use.

We have more clinical information available to us than ever before, but more information doesn’t necessarily mean better care. Clinicians need the right information, at the right time, presented in a way that helps them make decisions without adding to their workload. That’s one of the reasons I’m so excited about the potential of AI in healthcare.

Bringing it back to the patient

When I think about the possibilities for AI, what excites me most isn’t the technology itself. It’s what that technology could give back to clinicians and their patients.

Ambient documentation is a great example. Instead of spending the visit focused on a keyboard and computer screen, clinicians can focus their attention on the person sitting in front of them. And that’s just the beginning. AI has the potential to help clinicians quickly make sense of complex medical records, surface relevant information and take on many of the administrative tasks that consume so much of their time. Of course, technology can never replace clinical judgment. AI can help gather, organize and interpret information, but clinicians still need to apply their knowledge and experience, question when an AI interpretation doesn’t make sense and make the decisions that ultimately affect patient care.

I sometimes think back to that first delivery and what made the experience so meaningful. It wasn’t just the opportunity to perform a procedure. It was the privilege of being present for an incredibly important moment in someone’s life. That’s what I believe healthcare technology should help us preserve.

The goal isn’t to put more technology between clinicians and patients. It’s to use technology to remove the distractions and unnecessary work that keep them apart, so clinicians can spend more time doing what they entered medicine to do. For me, that’s what it has always been about. And it’s what continues to motivate the work I do today.