In a recent opinion piece for MedPage Today, Dr. Fred Pelzman describes spending hours completing an NIH biographical sketch for a large grant application. The new web-based platform required manual entry of information that is largely public, and a single extra space in one field prevented him from certifying the form until he tracked it down. He notes that the final PDF will likely never be read by anyone reviewing the grant.
Pelzman argues that AI could have handled the task in seconds, pulling data from PubMed and other sources. He draws parallels to clinical work, where home care agencies still rely on faxed forms and durable medical equipment prescriptions require printed, signed, and faxed documents, despite electronic prescribing being safer and more accurate. He describes this as wasted energy that contributes to burnout.
While acknowledging the need for security and fraud prevention, Pelzman suggests that modern authentication methods like two-factor authorization and passkeys should make such redundant steps unnecessary. He calls for simplifying and streamlining administrative processes to free up time for patient care, rather than forcing clinicians and researchers to trudge through busywork.