Every episode of HBO’s The Pitt options a point of medical trauma that nearly makes the hospital drama really feel like a horror sequence. Some sufferers are coping with gnarly lacerations whereas others are combating off vicious blood infections that would rob them of their limbs, and the chaos of working in an emergency room usually leaves The Pitt’s central characters shaken. However as alarming as a lot of The Pitt’s extra gore-forward moments will be, what’s much more unsettling is the present’s slow-burning subplot about hospitals adopting generative synthetic intelligence.
In its second season, The Pitt as soon as once more chronicles all of the occasions that occur throughout a single 15-hour day shift within the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Heart’s emergency room. Season two takes place on the Fourth of July — one of many busiest days for hospitals — as senior attending doctor Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Noah Wyle) is working one final shift earlier than he takes a much-needed sabbatical. With Dr. Robby scheduled to be away for 3 months, the hospital brings in Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi) to assist lead the emergency room whereas he’s away. There’s some personality-based friction between the attendings, however Dr. Robby largely respects how Dr. Al-Hashimi navigates her work besides when she insists that the hospital can be higher off if it dedicated to utilizing a bit of AI-powered transcription software program.
Although this season begins off comparatively calm, the day turns into more and more traumatic for all of The Pitt’s characters because the hospital turns into stuffed with individuals needing medical consideration. Staying on prime of her work is particularly taxing for second-year resident Dr. Trinity Santos (Isa Briones) as a result of she merely doesn’t have sufficient time to see all of her sufferers and thoroughly observe all of their signs of their medical charts.
Dr. Al-Hashimi is aware of that AI-generated transcripts aren’t good, however she sees Dr. Santos as the proper instance of a physician who may get by way of their charting quicker with the know-how’s assist. To the fictional software program’s credit score, it does precisely transcribe most of Dr. Santos’ dictation. However each medical doctors are surprised when a surgeon storms into the ER in a rage after receiving charts with very apparent, evident errors that would have led to sufferers receiving incorrect care.
Somewhat than working headlong right into a “generative AI is unhealthy and harmful” ripped-from-the-headlines plot, The Pitt has taken its time to discover the the explanation why medical professionals may need to use this type of know-how and the significance of taking a look at it with some skepticism. Dr. Al-Hashimi encourages her medical college students and residents to make use of the transcription software program, however she’s additionally diligent about warning them that they should double-check any work accomplished with AI as a result of they — not their instruments — are chargeable for how sufferers are handled. Every of Dr. Al-Hashimi’s warnings come throughout as The Pitt acknowledging real-world situations of patients suing hospitals over botched surgeries involving the usage of AI instruments and research which have found large language models to be unreliable of their capability to precisely predict affected person well being outcomes. The Pitt additionally makes use of Dr. Al-Hashimi’s AI boosterism to hammer house how adopting the know-how in skilled settings can really create more busywork (see: double-checking transcriptions) while contributing to people burning out. Initially, Dr. Al-Hashimi looks like she may be a serious antagonistic presence this season, however The Pitt’s writing crew has very neatly chosen to concentrate on a much bigger thought.
This season of The Pitt has been repeatedly emphasizing that know-how can solely accomplish that a lot to resolve issues when it isn’t actually designed to handle the actual challenge at hand. AI-powered transcription may help Dr. Santos end charts extra shortly (with some errors thrown in for good measure). However the software program can’t do a lot in regards to the emergency room being understaffed, or when the medical doctors and nurses are abruptly tasked with taking in additional sufferers after one other hospital goes on lockdown.
The best way characters like Dr. Santos and nurses like Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa) discover themselves inundated with demanding sufferers who’ve spent hours in overstuffed ready rooms looks like a direct reflection of the real-world challenges hospitals across the country are facing. To actually get a maintain on their workloads, The Pitt’s ER workers actually wants extra arms on deck and extra space to present sufferers the suitable care. However with the nation going through a nursing shortage and the fictional hospital being perpetually underfunded, it tracks that directors would need to strive boosting productiveness utilizing AI.
The Pitt simply may (and nonetheless may earlier than the season’s over) inform a narrative about how errors brought on by utilizing gen AI result in errors in working rooms that can leave medical professionals open to lawsuits. However the present is true for highlighting the truth that there are some vital office points that may’t be fastened just by throwing new sorts of know-how at them.
