There are four useful papers on AI in healthcare in the December 2025 World Medical Journal.
"Navigating the Dialogue on Using Artificial Intelligence in Medical Practice at the 76th WMA General Assembly" Carlos Cortes, Ashok Philip, Phillipe Cathala, Bobby Mukkamala, Helena Chapman,
- Practical aspects of employing AI, - Ethics of AI in Medicine, - AI in practice, - conclusion
"Potential Gains of Using Artificial Intelligence in Primary Care Lie Beyond Technology Itself" Pablo Requena
- AI in Primary Care: Possibilities and Concerns, - AI and the doctor/patient Relationship, - The Real Help AI Can Offer in Primary Care, - Conclusion
"Building Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Physicians: Lessons from the WMA Medical Technologies Working Group Webinar Series"- Jacob Mathew, Jesse Ehrenfeld.
- Introduction to AI in Medicine, - Ethics, Legal, and Regulatory Aspects of AI in Healthcare, - Current and Future Applications of AI in Medicine, - Best Practices in Medical AI Development, - AI for Health Equity: Bridging the Global Divide, - looking ahead
"Artificial Intelligence Empowering Quality Primary Healthcare in China" Hui Yin, Wheili Zhao,
- Five Dimensions of AI Empowerment in Quality Primary Health Care, - Enabling Conditions and Ethical Mechanisms, - Looking Ahead
"Five Dimensions of AI Empowerment in Quality PHC China’s experience reveals a coherent five-dimensional framework for AI empowerment in quality PHC: PHC doctors’ capacity, accessibility, efficiency, integration of preventive and clinical services, and cross-sector collaboration (Figure 1). Together, these dimensions illustrate how technology, when ethically governed, can reinforce human professionalism and advance universal health coverage.
1. Enhancing Physician Competence. AI strengthens the cognitive and diagnostic capabilities of PHC physicians through decision-support systems, knowledge retrieval, and predictive analytics.
2. Expanding Service Accessibility and Advancing Universal Health Coverage. By leveraging telemedicine, mobile diagnostics, and cloud-based platforms, AI helps bridge the urban-rural divide in access to care.
3. Improving and Reducing Doctors’ Administrative Burdens. AI enhances operational performance by optimising workflows and resource allocation for PHC doctors.
4. Integrating Preventive and Clinical Care. AI facilitates the integration of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up services - bridging the traditional divide between clinical medicine and public health.
5. Synergizing Health and Social Services. PHC doctors often encounter patients whose health problems are intertwined with social factors such as ageing, poverty, disability or limited access to public services. AI enables more effective cross-sector collaboration by linking medical data with social welfare, long-term care, and community service systems. In China, integrated digital health platforms connect medical, civil affairs, social security, and education databases, providing elderly and chronically ill patients with unified health records, welfare benefits, and care plans [11]. Through such systems, AI amplifies doctors’ ability to act as health coordinators, helping them identify vulnerable patients, support, organise interdisciplinary and provide continuous monitoring across sectors, which aligns AI Empowering Quality Primary Healthcare in China with global trends toward whole-of society health promotion.
"Looking Ahead AI will continue to reshape how PHC doctors diagnose, counsel, and care for patients. Its long-term value will depend on whether future developments deepen doctors’ clinical authority, strengthen trust, and advance fairness. Redefining the Medical Profession of PHC Doctors. The professional identity of physicians now includes ethical stewardship of digital tools, advocacy for patients’ rights, and leadership in interpreting complex data. This shift will encourage doctors to see themselves as informed interpreters, responsible decision-makers, and ethical guardians, rather than passive users of technology. When AI handles repetitive analytical tasks, physicians can redirect their time toward empathy, communication, and contextual reasoning [8]. Future research should therefore explore how AI influences medical ethics, patient trust, and accountability.
HIFA profile: Richard Fitton is a retired family doctor - GP. Professional interests: Health literacy, patient partnership of trust and implementation of healthcare with professionals, family and public involvement in the prevention of modern lifestyle diseases, patients using access to professional records to overcome confidentiality barriers to care, patients as part of the policing of the use of their patient data Email address: richardpeterfitton7 AT gmail.com