Abstract
The new iGP App – We are out of a job!
So the launch of the new iGP app has finally come to fruition. This is a computer package that can do absolutely everything we do. It can empathise, uncover hidden agendas, give the golden minute, live with uncertainty, manage complaints, refer, negotiate, manage budgets, deal with risk, work 12 hours a day, balance investigations versus cost, go through blood results, prescribe safely, do audits, get revalidated, provide excellent access, answer the phone and keep up to date. Not to mention the huge bank of medical knowledge to not miss the rare or common diagnosis. So that’s it folks, it’s all over! We can now all finally retire and pursue all those hobbies and interests we have always wanted. We can go travelling, watch films, read books, sleep and cure all that burnout from decades of grafting. Phew!
But wait a minute. Some feedback on the new iGP is coming into the practice comments box. What’s this we’re hearing – some patients are finding it ‘frustrating’? But the new iGP is just what we’ve all been waiting for. It never makes mistakes, and never has a bad day. Truth be told us real GPs have even sometimes started consulting it ourselves as a reference aid. Ok it has a slightly ‘computerish’ voice. And you often have to repeat yourself just to make yourself understood. And it isn’t that brilliant at making eye contact, but the cost-savings on training real GPs are indescribable. So why, after the initial rush and enthusiasm, are a lot of patients still requesting to see a ‘real human’ GP?
That’s typical isn’t it? As we finally sit here now with our feet up, mug of cocoa in hand, immersed in the BMJ, and wondering why someone didn’t invent the iGP sooner, it all comes crashing down around us again as appointments for human GPs seem to be just as much in demand as ever. When patients consult the Internet, they still want another consultation with us as well. The iGP is very good at thinking of more diagnoses, and even more tests, and even being apparently sympathetic, but it seems in the end it’s unable to see the wood for the trees or engage in holistic integrated thinking.
Perhaps an app could help us manage our chronic diseases. Patients could tap in their details, and it will tell them what to do with their medicines. It could also dish out unsolicited advice on preventive healthcare. (Imagine that, never having to give out unsolicited advice ever again!) And maybe it could help us human GPs with simpler guidelines that are relevant to primary care, at the tap of a finger.
So we will await the new iGP app with a little excitement, as well as trepidation. If it is developed well, perhaps it could be a great addition to the practice multi-disciplinary team. And hopefully whoever does invent it will get lots of grass-roots real GPs to help in its development. Now that would set an impressive precedent, taking healthcare into the 21st century with a bottom-up approach, rather than top-down.
There has been some debate around whether a computer app can do our jobs. Sure enough a computer can store all the medical knowledge in existence. But there are many human qualities we have that a computer can never replace. We think our jobs are very safe, but the challenge of providing the complex and demanding tasks we do on a daily basis remain. General practice is under strain. Do we really reward ourselves enough for the skills we have and use in that recurrent 10-minute puzzle? Do we realise how amazing we really are? We are fully aware of the need to reward competent trainees and ensure their morale is high, but what about qualified GPs? Too often people who are good at their jobs are never told so. Computers can certainly help us, but we do not believe a computer will ever be able to do what we all do and perhaps take for granted. We save the economy billions in providing cost-effective healthcare that limits unnecessary and sometimes wasteful investigations and hospital care. This is achieved by using highly complex and demanding skills that take almost a decade in training to develop and that an IT system can never replace. Whatever your current challenge or fear, never forget that you are amazing and irreplaceable. Happy healing.