Simplifying the care triage of patients who come to the health center, predicting when they will get sick or following up "through a chatbot that is intuitive and easy to use for the elderly" are some of the advantages offered by Artificial Intelligence (AA) applications in Primary Care.

This is what Hans Eguía, a member of the Digital Innovation and Clinical Management and Quality Assistance working groups of the Spanish Association of Primary Care (Semergen), has indicated that despite the numerous possibilities of this technology, which is mainly used at the hospital level, it is not widely used in Primary Care. At the attention

Eguía, who was participating in Semergen's 45th National Conference in Valencia, presented the following seminar: 'How can Artificial Intelligence (AI) help to make decisions in Primary Care?' The speaker emphasized that Technology has "many advantages" in the field of medicine: "It is used more at the hospital level, because there are more resources and also a greater volume of data", he stated, and in the case of Primary Care, he added that it could be used to triage patients, health - to be treated when they arrive at the center.

Director of Primary Care

It should be remembered that Eva Suárez, General Manager of Primary Care of the Generalitat of Valencia, explained in an interview that the Ministry has created the Autonomous Secretariat of Planning, Information and Digital Transformation, "to apply the latest technological advances in medicine in our Community of Valencia, and to be more effective in creating health".

Regarding the adaptation of health in advance to AA, as Suárez stated, "we are evaluating the application of artificial intelligence in different diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, and in the coming months we will start implementing it in pilot centers to evaluate its safety and effectiveness, before implementing it throughout the Community".

Semergen

According to Hans Eguía, Semergen AA is working on a computerized program that will allow patients to speed up appointments with their Primary Care doctor, to assess and see the discomfort of people who go to the health center, and to decide whether they should go, at that time, in 24 hours or in a week. .

Another advantage that Artificial Intelligence can provide is, through the design of the algorithm and using "data mining", with data from the patient's medical history and data from his laboratory tests, "to make a prediction of when the patient will get sick".

If the doctor asks the program to tell him the age at which most of his patients develop diabetes, and the answer is 40 years, the doctor can screen 39-year-old patients to keep them under control and avoid developing severe diabetes, which would also affect the increase in health care costs, as determined by .

In addition, Hans Eguía works with another group of the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), as a professor of the Digital Health Master, in the "HOPE project" (Health Operation for Personalized Evidence), which uses the medical ontology algorithm, in "medical" language in electronic medical histories. to understand what is written.

In this way, he stated, "information based on that patient (personalized medicine) can be searched in medical databases such as PubMed or ClinicalTrials", which would allow the doctor to have "more up-to-date support for diagnosis and treatment".

As Hans Eguía explained, they are also working with chatbots - software based on Artificial Intelligence capable of maintaining a real-time conversation through text or voice - to monitor patients.

In this regard, it stands out that because it is so simple and intuitive, it can be used by the elderly and that the information reaches a database where, according to the marked color, it reaches a database that determines whether the patient's control is normal or if he needs medical attention.

"It is beneficial both for the patient's quality of life and for the doctor himself, because it can control many diseases", says the expert, and laments that it is a "big problem" that it is not used "on a general level". For this reason, he emphasizes the importance of the participation of doctors to join the health system, also because it would not involve a large investment.

WONCA

On the other hand, last October 21, the president of the Spanish Association of Primary Care Physicians (SEMERGEN), Dr. José Polo, at the closing ceremony of the Association's 45th National Conference, SEMERGEN World Organization of Famliy Doctors (WONCA) reported its association with the organization.

For the society that is the leader in Primary Care Training and Research in Spain, this recognition is a "quality seal" that values a job well done and the history of the organization.