AMA CEO warns of 'digital dystopia' at AMA meeting

American Medical Association Executive Vice President and CEO James L. Madara, MD, said physicians need to have a role in the creation of new digital products as a way to ensure the industry stays away from what he calls a “digital dystopia” of technology that makes care less efficient, and going as far as to say digital tools seem to work effectively in "almost any other field" except medical practice. 

Speaking at the AMA's annual meeting in Chicago, Madara also talked about the good side of advanced medical technology, like robotic surgery, and the AMA's own initiatives like their Silicon Valley "innovation studio," Health 2047, and MATTER, an incubator based in Chicago aimed at helping start-up medical technology companies. 

But his focus was on instances where digital products only created frustration for physicians. 

“Appearing in disguise among these positive products are other digital so-called advancements that don’t have an appropriate evidence base … or that just don’t work well or that actually impede care, confuse patients and waste our time,” he said, “from ineffective electronic health records (EHR) to an explosion of direct-to-consumer digital health products to apps, some of which are of poor quality.”

The "digital dystopia" could be avoided, Madara said, by physicians being more closely involved in the development of new technology. At MATTER, he said the AMA has had success in having physicians talk directly to entrepeneurs about what their practices need. 

“We do much better if new products and services are deeply informed by our actual problems and needs,” he said.

By being directly involved, Madara believes medical professionals can make sure the new technology helps, rather than hinders, the patient-phyiscian relationship. 

"What we don't need is more digital snake oil," he said.