As many know, the use of AI has expanded to many places of work including physician offices. In 2024, 66% of physicians reported that they used AI. There are many different ways that AI is used in the office from helping document visits notes.

Dr. Andrea Dabney is an MD Obstetrician and Gynecologist who works at Emory Healthcare. She was recently introduced to using AI in her office. 

“[We started using AI] I believe in our primary care offices and in the OB offices in early 2025,” Dabney said.

As of now, there is one main use of AI in her office. 

“It’s downloaded onto our phone and we press a record button when we go into the room, and it sets up and it starts recording everything that the patient and I say during the visit,” Dabney said. “So it’s truly called medical transcription. So it doesn’t diagnose, but it lists out your problems that are considered medically related.”

Along with the main use of AI in her office, there is a set back for some of them.

“The AI app is also downloaded onto your iPhone, and right now it’s only available on the iPhone so all providers don’t have this particular app because they don’t have an iPhone,” Dabney said. “So that is one hindrance.”

Like many AI platforms, this app is bound to make mistakes. These mistakes could potentially hinder the doctor from taking the time to do other tasks that they have to get done.

“I think the main mistake I’m noticing after having used it for a couple of months now is when I’m interviewing a patient and asking questions, it’s stating the patient said they have these complaints instead of the patient saying they agreed or denied that they had these symptoms,” Dabney said. “So you definitely have to read every one of your encounters because they can be wrong. Another concern is the patient may come in for what’s considered their wellness exam but they have complaints and so a patient doesn’t understand a complaint and a wellness exam aren’t the same thing and so when the patient goes into having all these different complaints the AI reconstructs your note into a complaint note instead of a wellness visit and you have to go back and re-create it and make it a wellness visit.”

With AI being introduced in the doctor’s office, what do the patients think? For many, AI isn’t familiar, so it can bring out many emotions in patients who don’t know much about the app.

“You announced that you’re using AI and it’s considered medical transcription and I’ve had an overwhelming majority that have said ‘oh cool,’ Dabney said. “But I did have one patient upset and thought that she had been recorded against her will. She wanted me to cancel it out and I told her it would be canceled out of her chart and I would go based on memory for the things.” that I  could remember. She said was very, very upset about it.  And these are patients of all age ranges.

According to Mobius MD physicians spend around ten hours weekly on administrative tasks. It is possible that this workload is stressful on many doctors. So, the use of AI platforms could be seen as more efficient.

Dr. Dabney has many thoughts on the use of AI in her office. She will continue to work and accurately document her patients and persevere through the flaws that the app holds.

“Although [AI app] has its problems, you have to recognize it for what it is,” Dabney said. For now, it’s a huge help because the human mind is not a recorder. It really does significantly change the amount of time that we’re having to spend on charting, which is a huge portion of your job making sure you get your paperwork in as accurately as possible.”

Centuries ago, a theatre in London showcased the many plays of one man, unknowingly reshaping English language and culture. In the 21st century, Shakespeare’s plays are still performed, read and studied. According to Oxford Scholastica Academy, modern audiences relate to these stories with the same vigor as those in the 16th century, despite the many years between them.

Early modern British literature professor Sujata Iyengar teaches the intricacies of Shakespeare at the University of Georgia, a topic that continues to warrant deep discussion.

“Reading classic literature is important to students, and general readers and citizens today, because literary texts and dramatic texts that have stood the test of time can usually offer us access—in heightened language—to heightened experience and a space to reflect upon those experiences and the challenges of living among other people and in a complex civilization,” Iyengar said. “And the difficulty of classic texts is what allows us that time and space to reflect.”

David Daniel, a Core Company member and Education Director at American Players Theatre, echoes this sentiment of the timelessness of classics.

“At the end of ‘Oedipus [Rex]’, the chorus says, we all suffer. Suffering comes to us all. And, you know, you’re thinking that’s written in 300, 400 BCE,” Daniel said. “Or there’s another poet about 300 AD in Japan. She wrote this great poem that says, ‘people tell me I should brush my hair, but I leave it messy, just like you left it’. Not only is it like, oh, that’s just a good poem, because someone today could have written that. But the fact that it was written so long ago, or in my case, in a different culture so long ago, it just connects me to something bigger than just me now. Shakespeare connects me to something bigger than me now.”

Despite these connections to humanity, many are reluctant to experience the complex world of Shakespearean literature.

“People don’t really find love poetry until they’re in love,” Daniel said. “Or people don’t listen to a breakup song until after they’ve broken up, and then they listen to the same song a hundred million times. It’s not that you are ready for everything at all times. But when something happens in your life, for good, for bad, for anything, there is stuff there that other humans have gone through. And when you connect with that, then your world opens up. It makes you bigger.”

Additionally, Shakespeare is a performance. It is meant to be watched, which makes reading the multi-layered plays more difficult than other classic texts.

“If you go see a play and you don’t understand what’s going on, that’s 110% our fault as actors,” Daniel said. “We’re bad actors. It’s not, you’re dumb because you don’t understand it, but because you’re watching bad actors. Because the job of the actor is to make it easier for you to understand and also pull you in so you’re connected with what’s going on.”

Actors attempt to convey the themes found within the works of Shakespeare and other classic artists.

“Why human beings fight with each other, so war and peace,” Iyengar said. “How and why we fall in love. Who we fall in love with, which is the greatest and most beautiful mystery, in many ways, of all. What we find sacred. How parents relate to children and how siblings relate to each other. How societies can progress to greater levels of happiness and fulfillment for everyone.”

When it comes to modern retellings of these stories, there are certain things that the adapters must keep in mind.

“How far can you adapt it without changing what you think is the essence of the original?” Iyengar said. “So what is it that that person has to do in order to keep it the same story? And do you care? Because it’s quite possible as an adapter that you decide, I don’t actually care about this from the original, but what I’m interested in is a different kind of, a different aspect of it… You’re going to pick a storyline to follow and things to streamline, characters to cut out. And you might choose to elaborate on certain things.”

After being performed thousands of times over hundreds of years, the heart of Shakespeare’s works remains the same. Even so, each performance brings a new vision to a new audience.

“When David Warner was doing Hamlet in the early 80s, it was the Falkland War,” Daniel said. “And there’s a passage in ‘Hamlet’ where Hamlet walks out and he talks to somebody called the Captain. And he asked the Captain, he says, ‘where are these troops going?’… and the Captain says, ‘they’re going to go fight for a little piece of earth that is not big enough to hold the bodies of the men who died fighting for it’… during the Falkland Wars, he said it to an audience whose sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers were in the Falkland War fighting and dying for some sheep islands.”

Even a single play could be interpreted a million different ways by a million different people.

“When Ben Kingsley did ‘Hamlet’, to be or not to be, there was a young female [Buzz Goodbody], she was… absolutely going to shake up the Shakespearean world, had all these great ideas of what Shakespeare could be… and a week before they opened, she took her own life,” Daniel said. “And so Ben Kingsley, playing Hamlet, walks out and he says, ‘to be or not to be’. And it was completely different. Not because the play was different, but because what had happened to those people was different. And that your audience had been united and hear these words from hundreds of years ago, and all of a sudden they make absolute sense.”

Shakespeare’s works are narratives that allow actors to convey true human emotion, something that continues to appeal to audiences today.

“There is something more that human beings strive for than just the obvious,” Daniel said. “There is a connection that we look for. Poetry, dance, music, that’s art… it reminds us that those things that we’re feeling right now are not just about today, but are absolutely positively human because they show up in every generation, every era, every century, every millennium.” 

On July 9, 2024 Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin proposed banning cell phones in Virginia public schools starting January 1 2025. The goal of “cell phone-free education” was to promote healthier and more focused learning conditions but allowing students to have access to them at lunch.

Janet Balestino has been teaching at Virginia schools for 15 years. Through out her teaching career she always had access to her cell phone, preferably on her desk. “Without having to worry about my kids as much anymore, I still would check my messages from any clients and check for other important messages,” she says.

“Staying off of phones is hard for students, it’s normalized to have them on you at all times. It’s hard for both teachers and students because if they can’t be on it neither can I.”

With the ban coming in place January 1st which means as soon as we got back from winter break no watches, headphones, earbuds and phones. She expressed how having such a huge change mid year is hard for students to get used to. She believes it would’ve been more efficient to start the ban the first day of school. The first week of the ban she said she’s never had to contact as many parents or write so many referrals. She says it causes tension between her and the students. She hates having to get on her students so much about something that isn’t a huge problem but still has to follow the law.

“Having to come back after winter break and not being allowed to have any electronics it’s hard, it’s the middle of the year why do it now?”

For some student when working on computers makes them want to get on their phone more. Balestino says now she aims towards more lessons on paper. She also started doing game days on certain Fridays and days towards the end of semester. She said she loves to see her students take time off electronics and socialize more which was the goal of the ban.

“Doing worksheets means students are putting more focus into writing compared to typing with a phone in one hand, it also keeps the classroom quieter too, a better learning environment.”

As a marketing teacher making promotional videos have always been a big part of her class. If its videos for our school store or projects she allowed students to make videos on their phones. Filming videos on the Chromebook is hard. She says it’s going to be hard to find an alternative for the lesson for next year.

“I hate to see teachers also argue with other teachers about their views on cellphones, it’s such a non problem to other things that happen in the building. Phones are helpful if used in the right way. Like why are we chasing students down the halls if there’s an Airpod in their ear?”

After decreasing in test scores the governor made a change in our school system that did more affected more than just the students.

“I don’t think think that passing this worked in the way he wanted (Governor Glenn Youngkin) he thought it would be beneficial but started more behavioral issues in my personal opinion.”