Clinic & Planning
Predictive analytics, outcome modelling, patient selection, and pre-operative AI tools.
Posts in this pillar answer: how does this change the consultation and the plan?
AI is entering the consultation in ways that are less visible than robotic surgery but arguably more consequential for how decisions are made. Risk stratification tools, outcome prediction models, pre-operative planning software, and patient-facing AI systems are all shaping the clinical encounter — in some cases before the patient has even arrived.
This pillar looks at those tools honestly. That means engaging with the evidence — not just the published performance metrics, but the external validation, the deployment conditions, and the gap between what a model achieves in a research paper and what it does in your clinic. It also means thinking through the harder questions: AI and patient consent, the medicolegal implications of algorithm-influenced decisions, and what it means when your patient has already consulted ChatGPT before seeing you.
For trainees
As you move into senior clinic roles, these tools will increasingly be part of your pre-operative workflow. Understanding what they do — and where they fail — is essential groundwork before you’re expected to act on or explain their outputs.
For consultants
Adoption decisions, patient communication, consent implications, and medicolegal responsibilities. The clinical and governance questions around AI-assisted decisions sit squarely in this pillar — this is where the most complex issues for consultant practice are explored.
Published in this pillar
This is one of the fastest-growing pillars on the site. Planned and in-draft posts cover outcome prediction models across arthroplasty and trauma, pre-operative planning software, AI and patient consent, what patients are getting from ChatGPT before clinic, and more. Register to be notified as they publish.