Washington Examiner
· collected 2026-10-10 · by Morgan P. Lorio
For a patient waiting weeks for a specialist, the debate over artificial intelligence comes down to a practical question: Is useful guidance available in the meantime?
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guidance → wait → meantime
That perspective was largely missing from organized medicine’s response when HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested AI could offer a better-informed second opinion than any physician.
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AI → miss → physician
In a Sept. 30 joint statement, the American Medical Association and five other physician organizations acknowledged AI’s potential while warning that claims of inherent superiority diminish physician expertise and risk undermining patient trust.
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claims → acknowledge → trust
The AMA was right to challenge sweeping claims.
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AMA → challenge → claims
Its broader policies address validation and oversight, but this response gave insufficient attention to patients who lack timely care.
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who → address → care
What should they do when the expertise being defended is unavailable?
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expertise → do → What
As a retired orthopedic surgeon, I value clinical judgment and responsibility.
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I → value → judgment
I have also warned about AI’s dangers, including the devaluation of people displaced by automation.
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I → warn → automation
Yet I see AI as a possibly invaluable physician-helper, with validated uses, clear limits, and a practical “kill switch.”
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I → see → uses
AI can serve as a sounding board, helping physicians consider alternative explanations, identify missing information, and question initial assumptions.
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physicians → serve → assumptions
AI may ultimately perform much of physicians’ cognitive work.
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AI → perform → work
The extent of that transition should depend on demonstrated performance, patient outcomes, and clear accountability.
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extent → depend → performance
Kennedy’s challenge can open a useful dialogue without making every assertion correct.
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assertion → open → dialogue
His report that Sam Altman called failure to consult AI “malpractice” does not establish a clinical requirement.
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Altman → call → requirement
A 2025 study on injury compared ChatGPT-4 with four orthopedic surgeons answering 20 questions across five common emergency-department scenarios.
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surgeons → compare → scenarios
Independent reviewers rated AI’s responses higher for completeness, helpfulness, specificity, and overall quality, without a significant difference in overall accuracy.
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reviewers → rat → accuracy
This small study assessed written recommendations, not patient outcomes.
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study → assess → recommendations
In comments reported by MedPage Today, former American College of Physicians President Jason Goldman went beyond the joint statement, dismissing AI as a second opinion and emphasizing its potential for error.
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Goldman → report → error
Physicians also work with incomplete information and mistaken assumptions.
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Physicians → work → information
The possibility of error warrants safeguards; it does not establish comparative performance.
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it → warrant → performance
Nor does concern about undermining trust settle the question.
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concern → undermine → question
Trust grows when patients can examine recommendations and question the reasoning behind them.
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patients → grow → them
Goldman also rejected Kennedy’s characterization of “medical tyranny,” noting that patients can decline physicians’ advice.
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patients → reject → advice
But that freedom does not eliminate institutional restrictions on care, and AI advice alone would not remove them either.
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advice → eliminate → them
For rural communities and resource-limited settings worldwide, the relevant comparison may be AI-assisted care versus delayed care — or no specialist input at all.
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comparison → limit → care
AI could support local clinicians facing decisions without specialist assistance.
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AI → support → assistance
Evaluation should measure whether it improves assessment, referral, and timely treatment while avoiding false reassurance or delayed transfer.
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it → measure → reassurance
For patients awaiting care, AI may also help organize symptoms and prepare questions, without being mistaken for a validated substitute for an independent physician consultation.
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AI → await → consultation
Kennedy’s example of a lengthy medical record and a brief appointment also deserves engagement.
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example → deserve → engagement
A patient’s records may be scattered across hospitals, clinics, and specialists whose electronic systems have limited interoperability — the ability to exchange and use information.
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systems → scatter → information
Overcoming barriers to sharing and reconciling records should itself be a goal of AI development, with institutions responsible for enabling secure exchange.
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itself → overcome → exchange
With authorized access, source traceability, and verification, AI could help translate data formats, assemble a clinical timeline, and flag conflicting entries, reducing time spent reconstructing records.
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AI → help → records
With patient consent, AI could also document the encounter for physician review, freeing the physician to spend more quality time with the patient during history-taking and physical examination.
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AI → document → taking
Meaningful oversight requires someone with the skill to question an answer, the time to investigate, and the authority to intervene.
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oversight → require → answer
A kill switch requires a tested fallback so care can continue safely when automation stops.
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automation → require → fallback
Staffing, training, and payment must support that responsibility.
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Staffing → support → responsibility
Patients need a route to human evaluation and clarity about who controls recommendations, uses their information, and answers for failures.
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who → need → failures
AI should expand access to expertise, not become the only option offered to patients with the fewest resources.
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AI → expand → resources
Access also depends on affordability.
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Access → depend → affordability
In an earlier Washington Examiner commentary, I asked: Where did the money go?
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money → ask → commentary
…and 11 more, not listed.
The Aporia
