Content pillar

AI Skills

Practical AI for surgeons — setup, tools, voice, memory, and workflow.

Posts in this pillar answer: how do I actually use AI in my own work?

Every other pillar on this site covers AI as a clinical subject — a tool deployed in theatres, clinics, and emergency departments that surgeons need to understand and evaluate. This one is different. AI Skills is about AI as a personal tool — how to set it up, how to make it useful, and how to avoid the most common mistakes that turn it from a genuine asset into something you abandon after two sessions.

These posts are based on direct experience using AI tools in a busy surgical practice. The tone is more personal than the clinical posts. There is no pressure to read them in order, but there is a logical sequence — the first few posts build the conceptual groundwork, and the later posts get more specific and practical. Start with the question that is most relevant to where you are right now.

Reading order: if you are new to using AI tools seriously, start with post 1 (tiers and pricing), then 2 (model comparison), then 5 (15-minute setup guide). The setup guide is the highest-value single post in this series.

For trainees

Get AI working properly as a productivity tool for clinical work, research, writing, and exam preparation. These posts cover the setup that most people skip — and it is the setup that makes the difference between AI that feels useful and AI that feels unreliable.

For consultants

Practical guidance for integrating AI into a busy consultant workflow — clinical admin, correspondence, literature review, and the operational side of surgical practice. Direct experience, not theoretical.

Published in this pillar

Should I pay for Claude? Making sense of AI tiersFree vs Pro vs Max — what each tier actually includes, what the practical differences are for surgical work, and when the upgrade is genuinely worth it. Includes a ChatGPT Plus comparison.Read →Claude vs ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Grok: a surgeon’s honest comparisonAn honest head-to-head based on direct clinical testing. Includes specific concerns about Grok, the Cowork desktop advantage, and why the choice of model matters more than most people assume.Read →How to get AI to sound like youA practical method for making AI write in your voice rather than a generic professional tone. Includes what to give it and why the standard approach doesn’t work.Read →How to get AI to remember thingsWhy AI forgets, what the context window is, how Projects work, and the setup that means Claude remembers the things that matter across every session.Read →Setting up Claude properly: a 15-minute guide for surgeonsThe highest-value post in this series. A step-by-step walkthrough for setting up a Project with a system prompt, voice fingerprint, and reference documents. Includes a copy-paste template.Read →Chat, Cowork, Code, Skills, Plugins, and Prompts: what is what and when to use eachThe full Claude toolbox explained. What each mode does, the most common mistake, and a decision guide for knowing which one to reach for.Read →Building your AI tribe: who to add, what to give them, how to startHow to build a set of AI personas that are actually useful — from a practical surgeon perspective. Real examples, a guide to your own setup, and why starting with something fun is often the right move.Read →My calendar skill: how AI manages my clinical scheduleHow a custom AI skill reads an NHS rota Excel file and creates all the calendar events automatically. A worked example of what AI workflow automation actually looks like in practice.Read →