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AI in Medicine That Doesn't Suck: Useful AI Tools for Clinicians
Unless you've been living off the grid (in which case, can I join you?), you've probably noticed that artificial intelligence has invaded nearly every corner of healthcare. And now we're jumping on the AI in medicine bandwagon too (kind of). From ambient AI (AI medical scribes) to CME to apps claiming they can get better board scores than you can, AI is everywhere.
Are there still bugs (to put it mildly) to be worked out? Of course. But here’s the thing: a lot of it actually kind of works. You just need to know where to look and how to use it safely and effectively. I’ve had the dubious privilege of seeing AI creep into both my clinical practice as a psychiatric PA and my work as a medical educator. A few tools have made me faster, smarter, and even saved me some time.
In this post, instead of regurgitating some generic “ChatGPT for doctors” stuff, I’ll walk you through the AI tools I actually use, in the real world, with actual patients and students. Now, I don’t claim to be an AI expert or a “prompt engineer,” but I am fascinated by new technologies and love to experiment with improving my performance however I can. We'll cover:
- Two AI tools I use in clinical practice: DoximityGPT and VisualDx
- Two I use in medical education: BoardVitals and ChatGPT itself, believe it or not
- What they actually help with, what they don’t, and how to get started without needing an IT department or a PhD in machine learning.
Spoiler: none of them will fix your EMR, and they definitely won’t manage your prior auths (though there is at least one out there that claims to do just that). Quick warning before you get started: don’t enter PHI into any of these tools, even if they are HIPAA compliant. You know better.
Table of Contents
AI in Clinical Practice
There are more “AI in medicine” products than one person could reasonably want to use. But a couple of AI tools have actually earned a spot in my daily workflow, especially in psychiatry where additional documentation and patient education are part of the gig (and, let’s be real, not the part that gets reimbursed).
VisualDx
VisualDx has been quietly using AI and machine learning longer than most of us have been talking about it. It’s best known for dermatology (and for good reason), but its diagnostic reach spans well beyond the skin.
In psychiatry, I’ve leaned on VisualDx when a rash shows up in clinic, especially in patients on meds like lamotrigine or lithium where dermatologic side effects matter. It’s also come in handy for:
- Exploring neurocutaneous syndromes or autoimmune presentations with psychiatric symptoms.
- Reviewing potential adverse effects from psychiatric meds with visual manifestations.
- Pulling up visuals to help patients understand what a diagnosis looks like in real terms (not just in ICD codes).
- Pros:
- Covers a wide range of specialties in addition to dermatology: psychiatry, neurology, infectious diseases, and internal medicine, and more
- CME credit just for using it without the hassle of extra quizzes or soul-crushing post-tests
- Beautifully optimized for mobile, with an intuitive interface that makes it usable even in time-crunched settings
- Cons:
- With so many features and specialties, the interface can take a few minutes to get used to.
- Not always necessary for straightforward cases. But when things get weird, it's gold.
Bottom line: VisualDx helps you work through complex or atypical presentations faster, with better visuals, and it occasionally makes you look like a genius. Not a bad deal.
DoximityGPT
In psychiatry, just like other areas of medicine, writing letters is part of the job. Emotional support animal letters. Return-to-work notes. School accommodation requests. FMLA paperwork. Medication prior auth appeals. Sometimes it’s a quick paragraph, and sometimes it’s a two-page narrative with a sprinkle of DSM citations.
DoximityGPT lives inside the Doximity app (one of my favorite medical apps by the way) and web platform, and functions like a clinical ChatGPT with a med school rotation under its belt. I’ve used it to:
- Draft letters for various patient needs, including advocating for workplace accommodations or explaining why someone needs a particular medication.
- Generate patient-friendly summaries for meds like lithium or lamotrigine, which is ideal when patients want solid information without resorting to Reddit reviews.
- Pros:
- Fast, responsive, and reasonably clinical out of the box.
- Easy to use on mobile and desktop.
- Especially useful in any specialty where written documentation frequently requires nuance and clarity.
- Cons:
- With so many features and specialties, the interface can take a few minutes to get used to.
- Not always necessary for straightforward cases. But when things get weird, it's gold.
Bottom line: it won’t replace your clinical judgment, but it will help you get through your letter backlog before the end of the week.
AI in Medical Education
For clinicians, learning is a full-time job on top of your already full-time job. Between board prep, earning CME, teaching students, and trying to remember what the new guidelines say about literally anything, it can feel like your brain is running too many tabs. Thankfully, AI and AI-adjacent tools have started doing more than just throwing buzzwords at us. Some are actually useful.
BoardVitals AI Risk Assessment Tool
BoardVitals has been a longtime staple in the test-prep and CME world, and they’ve recently leveled up with an AI Risk Assessment tool. Once you’ve answered enough questions, it flags the areas where you're statistically most likely to mess up on the real exam. It’s not subtle, but it is efficient.
Use case: I’ve used BoardVitals for a lot of CME over the years. I also recommend it to students and colleagues who don’t have time for aimless studying. It’s surprisingly good at helping you focus where you need it most.
- Pros:
- Personalized, adaptive learning driven by your own performance.
- Prioritizes high-yield, high-risk topics so you don’t waste time.
- Offers CME question banks, so you can get credit while refreshing core concepts.
- Cons:
- Getting a “high risk” rating can feel like a slap from your former self.
- The AI is only part of the platform — you still need to do the reading.
Bottom line: Whether you're prepping for boards or brushing up for practice, this tool helps you focus and keeps you honest. Get it here and save 10% off your order with promo code MODERN10.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT isn’t a formal CME tool, but it’s earned a place in my medical education workflow. With the right prompts, it becomes an idea factory — helping organize complex topics, brainstorm clinical cases, and draft first-pass educational content.
Use case: I've used it to:
- Build lesson plans and structured learning paths for PA students rotating through my psychiatry clinic, tailored to their interests and clinical level
- Draft test questions and explanations for lecture and end or rotation exams (always followed by a thorough manual review)
- Pros:
- Fast and surprisingly organized. Great for outlining, brainstorming, and rough drafts
- Customizable to learner level and clinical focus
- Helpful for when you are pressed for time but still want to teach well
- Cons:
- Still prone to factual errors and outdated information
- Needs precise prompting to avoid vagueness or filler content
Bottom line: it won’t replace your clinical judgment or experience, but it can absolutely help you teach those things more efficiently.
Honorable Mentions
These are tools I’ve started using recently and will hopefully have more good things to say in a future article.
OpenEvidence
OpenEvidence is an AI-powered literature summarizer that digests full-text medical studies (not just abstracts). It’s kind of like ChatGPT trained on medical data. You can ask it any medical question, have it generate guidelines summaries, and even create board-review style questions and explanations. It’s also completely free for healthcare professionals with an NPI number and allows you to earn CME credits for each search. Join here.
Pathway
Pathway is similar to OpenEvidence, but has a premium version and allows you to earn CME credits for each chat. It’s an AI-enhanced clinical decision support tool that blends guidelines, algorithms, and evidence summaries. It's recently been acquired by Doximity and integrated into DoxGPT for free for clinicians. You can no longer sign up on the Pathway site, but instead access it through your Doximity account.
ReachRx
ReachRx is another GPT-like app, but focused on medications and pharmaceutical knowledge. You can ask clinical questions, find and connect with your local sales reps, and even request medication samples.
The free version gets you 50 clinical searches per month and unlimited sample requests, while the Pro version ($20/mo) provides access to unlimited clinical searches, premium data sources, digital patient handouts, and early access to new features. Try it here first.
Elicit AI
Elicit is an LLM built on research literature. While ChatGPT has been trained on research data, it's also been trained on Reddit, blogs, and literally everything else on the internet. That's why it's so important to take what it says with a grain of salt.
Elicit performs well as a research assistant, with features that can help you develop and improve your research question and generate scientific reports after gathering, screening, and extracting data from dozens of papers. The free plan is pretty limited in the number of questions you can ask per month, but it's worth a try. Sign up for Elicit here.
Final Thoughts
AI in medicine isn’t magic and it sure isn’t perfect, but it’s finally doing more than adding “just one more thing” to your task list. When used right, it can cut the busywork, sharpen your teaching, and maybe even give you back a few minutes of your day.
It won’t replace your brain, but it can definitely back it up. Try a few of these tools and see which ones stick. If they help, great. If not, you’ve at least earned the right to complain about them with authority.
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First Published: May 2, 2025
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