What Problem Are We Trying to Solve? AI and Automation in General Practice
A Brew, a Whiteboard, and a Better Question
The outside claims this piece leans on, and where they come from. Each note says what the source looked at, so you can judge how far it stretches.
Automation that needs constant monitoring relocates cognitive burden rather than removing it
Bainbridge L. Ironies of automation. Automatica 1983;19(6):775–779
Analysis of human operators' roles in automated industrial process control, 1983.
GP workforce shortages are not going to resolve quickly
Modelled projection of GP supply vs demand in England to 2030/31, published 2022.
General practice faces increasing clinical and administrative complexity
Simulation model of multimorbidity among people aged 65+ in England, 2015 to 2035.
General practice faces rising demand with limited capacity to match it
Official NHS England counts of GP appointments, registered patients and GP FTE, England, 2015–2026.
Healthcare runs on fragmented systems that were not designed to talk to one another
Qualitative and survey analysis of electronic patient record use in English acute trusts, 2025.
Healthcare works because humans constantly compensate for system imperfections; real workflow differs from the process map
Conceptual white paper on resilience engineering in healthcare, 2015 (not an empirical study).
Tacit knowledge carried by experienced staff is almost impossible to document
Polanyi M. The Tacit Dimension. 1966 (University of Chicago Press reissue, 2009)
Philosophical account of knowledge that cannot be fully articulated, 1966.
Whiteboard system mapping is classic systems analysis thinking that predates AI by decades
Origin of process charting (1921) and of the term 'artificial intelligence' (1955).