Artificial intelligence is affecting so many parts of our lives in ways seen and unseen, and that includes healthcare.
While AI has the potential to improve care and save lives, some say it's actually putting a barrier between them and the medicine they need, stigmatizing them and leaving them in lasting pain.
Brandy Novicka is an advocate for patients in pain. This is a battle she knows first-hand.
"The first time I complained of back pain, I was 8 years old, and that's when it was discovered that I had scoliosis," she said.
Looking at Novicka, you wouldn’t know her spine has two pronounced curves. It's been a life-long battle, and she has the scars from eight surgeries to prove it.
She said she lives in pain every day. She also said patients like her face unnecessary challenges accessing the powerful pain medicines they need to function, in part because of the AI driving the Narx Score used by states to identify potential abuse.
Scores are based on the number of medical prescribers, hits on pharmacies, the kind and strength of medicines and overlapping prescriptions. With a severe spinal curvature and exhausting non-opioid pain meds, Novicka relies on hydrocodone. Finding someone to manage her pain has been difficult.
"I was being bounced around to so many doctors, and that was going against me like I was doctor shopping," Novicka said. "It has been a nightmare here, an absolute nightmare."
Dr. Elizabeth Bulat, the medical director of addiction services at Henry Ford Health, said Narx scores are useful in identifying cases worth a closer look.
"The report is as good as the data that you have," Bulat said.
That potential for overdose could come from a prescription the patient simply forgot about.
Bulat says there is a role for Narx scores in patient care, but adds that algorithms can’t replace human judgment. For instance, if someone has two prescribers.
"This could be somebody that recently moved or relocated, you know, or their prescriber was out of town and they had to find another," Bulat said.
Novicka believes Narx score should be scrapped and says the system has many doctors afraid to prescribe medicines to treat pain, ADHD and other disorders even when it’s appropriate. She calls the system a tool for law enforcement.
"Pain patients aren't criminals. Like my crime is being born with a bad spine," she said.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are not going away, so the goal here has to be to find ways to minimize the negative impacts, and balance the potential harms with the enormous benefits for good
