Women using AI to advance patient care
SmileCon session prompts female crowd to consider use of artificial intelligence in practice
How can artificial or augmented intelligence help advance patient care? How can it help busy dentists and dental team members multitask better?
These questions and more were explored at Women’s Leadership in Dental AI: Thriving Together, sponsored by Crest+Oral-B. Described as an “AI guru,” Ret. Capt. Margaret Scarlett, D.M.D., chief dental officer at SCI, led the mostly female crowd Oct. 18 in a conversation about the possibilities of AI.
“I love working with women, and we’re here to listen and talk to each other,” Dr. Scarlett said. “We’re multitaskers, and AI can really help us with multitasking.”
She described her definition of the difference between artificial intelligence and augmented intelligence, where a human is involved in the decision process, merely using AI as a tool to make decisions.
“We can be informed by the computer, but we maintain control,” Dr. Scarlett said.
She encouraged the crowd to ask themselves a few questions when considering which AI decision support tools to use: what’s the specific use case and for what population? How was the algorithm developed? What’s the sensitivity and specificity of the product?
Dr. Scarlett and Anne M. Duffy, a registered dental hygienist and founder and CEO of Dental Entrepreneur Media, who helped moderate the event, had the crowd do an exercise in small groups where they talked about how they’re currently using AI and how they’d like to be using it in the future. They all wrote their thoughts on tall easels.
One group reported that they use AI when they write narratives to patients or denials of coverage; create tabletop signage for marketing; and promote their practice via email. One dental team member shared how she used AI to develop a road trip plan for her family.
“Is your mind being blown right now if you haven’t used AI?” Ms. Duffy said. “You can’t believe what it can do for you from a business standpoint and personally.”
