Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Using AI to Enhance Neurosurgery and Patient Care with Dr. Rory K.J. Murphy

Transcript

Using AI to Enhance Neurosurgery and Patient Care with Dr. Rory K.J. Murphy · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - The playbook for running a successful ASC in
• 0:04
  - 2026
• 0:06
  - looks almost nothing like it did a few
• 0:07
  - years ago.
• 0:08
  - And the one for 2029
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  - probably won't look like this one either.
• 0:12
  - Case complexity is increasing. Payer models are shifting.
• 0:16
  - Technology is creating new possibilities
• 0:19
  - and new cost pressures at the same time.
• 0:21
  - The spine and orthopedic leaders who are staying
• 0:24
  - ahead aren't just keeping up with the changes.
• 0:27
  - They are in rooms where the changes get
• 0:29
  - talked about honestly. Becker's twenty third annual Spine
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  - plus physician and ASC speakers, three days of
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  - programming across the clinical,
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  - operational, and strategic
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  - with CME credits available.
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  - Join us June eleventh through the thirteenth. For
• 0:52
  - the agenda and event details, visit Becker's Hospital
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  - Review and click on the events tab in
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  - the upper right.
• 1:00
  - This is Carly Beam with Becker Spine and
• 1:02
  - Orthopedics podcast. And joining me today is doctor
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  - Rory Murphy at Barrel Brain and Spine. Doctor
• 1:08
  - Murphy, thank you so much for being here
• 1:10
  - today.
• 1:11
  - Thank you, Carly.
• 1:12
  - And so to get started, I'd love if
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  - you could just introduce yourself, your role, and
• 1:17
  - talk about the scope of your organization.
• 1:19
  - Yeah. So I'm a neurosurgeon as part I'm
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  - part of the Barrow Brain and Spine group,
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  - and I'm a partner in our group. And
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  - we have a large
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  - private practice neurosurgery group here in Phoenix,
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  - and we have collaboration
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  - agreements with some of the major health organizations
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  - here.
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  - And our group
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  - primarily focuses on neurosurgery,
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  - but we also have a busy
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  - pain management group and physical therapy
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  - group. So our goal is to be able
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  - to help people with all brain and spine
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  - challenges.
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  - That's excellent. And can you talk about
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  - what's currently commanding most of your attention as
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  - a leader?
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  - Well, it's always about
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  - there's different facets.
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  - So in the operating room, we're trying to
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  - make things
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  - smoother, more efficient,
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  - you know, having the perfect teamwork, having the
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  - perfect flow in the operating room,
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  - using
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  - that through communication,
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  - education,
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  - building the right team, putting the right team
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  - members together, and we are using technology to
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  - help us as well, planning,
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  - executing operations.
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  - And then outside of the operating room, we're
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  - trying to work better with
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  - technologies like AI
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  - to streamline our patient's process. So when they
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  - have a new issue,
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  - we can help them guide them through their
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  - condition, educate them on their condition, and being
• 2:39
  - empowered and in control of their condition so
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  - they can manage their condition whether it needs
• 2:44
  - further physical therapy,
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  - maybe an operation.
• 2:47
  - Mhmm. And, Neil, with AI in particular, can
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  - you talk about,
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  - any particular case uses that you found to
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  - have been the most effective, whether it's in
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  - the office or the OR?
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  - The most obvious and
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  - quickest and easiest adoption, I was very impressed
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  - by it, was the use of AI scribes.
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  - And that has really come about over the
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  - past twelve months. So, traditionally,
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  - I always used
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  - a scribe who
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  - normally was a student applying for nursing school,
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  - medical school, or PA school, and they will
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  - be working on their application. They work as
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  - a scribe in our office.
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  - And
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  - over the past twelve months, we've moved over
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  - to completely
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  - AI based
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  - scribing in our office.
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  - Having a scribe allows me to
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  - concentrate on the person,
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  - listen to them,
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  - engage with them, give them my full focus
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  - so I'm not working on a computer or,
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  - typing.
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  - All I'm doing is looking at the person,
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  - talking to them. I guess it gives me
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  - more time to walk with see them walk
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  - in the corridor, see them moving,
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  - and, you know, better assess
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  - and make a diagnosis.
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  - And then it really helps with our paperwork.
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  - It's not I I feel view it as
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  - a it's an assist.
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  - It makes things a bit easier
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  - and a bit makes us more efficient.
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  - Got it. And can you talk about are
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  - there any other interesting ways, besides Ambiance, some
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  - scribing
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  - that you've been exploring for,
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  - a AI applications?
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  - Yes. Like, helping
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  - correct my notes and my operative notes,
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  - making sure that I have the important
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  - components in my operating note, just make sure
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  - that I haven't missed anything,
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  - including
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  - the diagnosis codes and CPT codes. That's been
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  - very interesting over the past number of months,
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  - and that's been very helpful for my operative
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  - team and my billing team.
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  - And, it also helps my it's been helpful
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  - for our preoperative planning, working with insurance companies,
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  - making sure we have the appropriate CT codes
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  - for my team. My team can make sure
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  - that when they're submitting for a case,
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  - we have all the information there. And, unfortunately,
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  - if we have a denial,
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  - we can use
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  - AI
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  - to help
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  - script
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  - rebuttal or a appeal
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  - to the insurance company. So it's empowered my
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  - team too in how they
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  - can use the language better. That's really interesting.
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  - So two really interesting, case uses you you're
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  - discussing here. One, just
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  - being more present with, your patients, and then
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  - also,
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  - you know, just having sounds like, hopefully, more
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  - success when it comes to working,
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  - within
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  - on the insurance side.
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  - Correct. So
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  - a lot of the
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  - tasks that are taking away from our ability
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  - to, you know, spend time with patients, I
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  - think the AI is helping
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  - to reduce the burden of them. And have
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  - you seen now, I don't know, like, just,
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  - an ink like, a noticeable increase in the
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  - number of patients you've been able to see
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  - or operate on thanks to these tools?
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  - No. My my
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  - these time I'm spending with people remains the
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  - same. It's just allowing me to,
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  - as the bureaucracy of medicine is increasing
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  - Mhmm. Continue to spend the time I I
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  - need to with my patients,
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  - and
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  - it can't rack some of the increasing bureaucracy.
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  - Got it. And, you know, in a year
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  - that's marked by lots of just rapid changes,
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  - can you talk about any recent decisions or
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  - pivots that require the most leadership conviction from
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  - you?
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  - It's a good question. It's always about our
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  - the person with the problem in front of
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  - us. And then
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  - I find
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  - that every time I'm in a situation where
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  - we have our team involved,
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  - that's we just go back to that main
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  - point. So
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  - this person
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  - has this challenge.
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  - That's you know, this person's in extreme pain
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  - from this
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  - tumor that's pressing his spinal cord. And that's
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  - always the way I start a case. So
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  - if we have a new patient coming to
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  - the Operating Room, you know,
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  - this young man has a spine tumor that's
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  - pressing his spinal cord. He's weakened his arms
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  - and legs. I explain
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  - the imaging to the team, go through our
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  - pre op briefing.
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  - And then everyone
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  - it refocuses everyone. It puts everyone back,
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  - focused on the core essence of what we're
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  - trying to do. And then everything else is
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  - pretty easy.
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  - Everyone's
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  - aligned. Everyone's going towards a goal. Everyone's trying
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  - to improve the the situation, you know, take
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  - the pressure off the spinal cord, get the
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  - tumor out,
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  - improve this young person's life. And then everything
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  - else moves smoothly afterwards.
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  - Got it. And,
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  - you know, can you talk about, you know,
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  - some of the biggest forces that you feel
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  - are reshaping health care
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  - right now?
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  - You know, where do you believe that leaders
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  - need to be more decisive,
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  - especially when you are talking about things like
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  - balancing speed
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  - and risk and then the, you know, alignment.
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  - Yeah. So I do think,
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  - AI is really helpful. And you know what
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  - it does? It gives us
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  - capabilities that we may have lacked. Take an
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  - example,
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  - Neurobelle, which is a company I'm involved in.
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  - I'm on the board. They are using AI
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  - to help detect seizures in neonates.
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  - And
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  - I think it's an excellent example of where
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  - AI is coming in.
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  - Detecting neonatal seizures can be very tricky. There's
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  - a,
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  - premature,
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  - children are a higher risk of having seizures,
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  - and
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  - having pediatric neonatologist
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  - available
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  - in all the centers is not feasible.
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  - You know, you're just not gonna get pediatric
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  - epidemiologist
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  - in every
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  - hospital across The US. And so they've developed
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  - systems that can
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  - be easily applied
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  - Mhmm. And use
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  - AI
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  - to detect seizures with a very high
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  - specificity and sensitivity.
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  - Mhmm. Then you can then get that young
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  - child
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  - to the best care
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  - at the right time.
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  - Thanks to AI. And those seizures may have
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  - been missed or not diagnosed, and the the
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  - young child suffer for a very long time.
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  - So
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  - I think
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  - finding problems
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  - that we can I think, over the next
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  - few years, we will be able to use
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  - new technology
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  - to solve many of our challenges?
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  - And we have to be
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  - open to using the technology
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  - in the correct way
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  - with the correct safeguards. I
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  - am concerned about,
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  - you know, balance the need to
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  - improve
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  - technology,
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  - get it out there so they can help
• 9:51
  - people,
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  - and balance that against some of the risks
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  - involved
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  - with data security and cybersecurity.
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  - So that is an issue. But I think
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  - we can't be
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  - too cautious and too conservative
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  - because we have to move things forward, and
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  - we have to help our patients. And this
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  - technology can help our patients immensely.
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  - But we do also have to be cognizant
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  - of the security issues too and cybersecurity issues
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  - because we
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  - have far
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  - you know, our patients trust us with far
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  - more
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  - than
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  - other comp other groups and other professions.
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  - So we have to be able
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  - to protect that information, that integrity too.
• 10:30
  - So, doctor Murphy, sounds like what you're really
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  - describing is that kind of balance between being
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  - open minded, but then also
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  - making sure you're picking out the right,
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  - technology application, whether it's AI or any of
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  - these other
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  - resources available to spine and
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  - neurosurgeons.
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  - Can you kind of dive in a little
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  - bit deeper into that if there are any,
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  - particular
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  - green flags or red flags that surgeons should,
• 11:00
  - look out for?
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  - Well, green flags will be working with good
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  - reputable groups that have been doing this for
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  - a while.
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  - Red flag I don't think there are any
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  - major red flags. This is such a new
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  - area.
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  - So just working with good rep though groups
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  - is gonna be the key.
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  - Got it. And then last question for you,
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  - doctor Murphy.
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  - As uncertainty
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  - has become the norm, are there any leadership
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  - habits or mindsets that have been especially critical
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  - in keeping your organization, your people moving forward?
• 11:34
  - Yeah. Everything is changing every day.
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  - This always changes.
• 11:39
  - And just keeping focus on the our
• 11:43
  - core goal.
• 11:44
  - Keeping our team focused on the core goal
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  - of
• 11:47
  - when a person comes to see us with
• 11:49
  - a challenge,
• 11:50
  - then we're gonna help them.
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  - And everything else is pretty straightforward. Then we,
• 11:55
  - know, we'll have to modify things. Things would
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  - change every week.
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  - But if we focus on that goal, everything
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  - else falls in line. And that's that's that's
• 12:04
  - the nice thing about our team. They always
• 12:06
  - focus on that, and we don't have any
• 12:08
  - issues.
• 12:10
  - Great note to close conversation on. Well, doctor
• 12:13
  - Murphy, thank you so much for taking the
• 12:14
  - time to chat on our podcast. Look forward
• 12:17
  - to seeing you at our June event, and
• 12:20
  - I hope you enjoy the rest of your
• 12:22
  - day. Thank you very much, Cody.