AI health tools are proliferating — ambient scribes, triage platforms, patient engagement solutions. But most assume infrastructure rural America lacks: reliable broadband, integrated EHRs, adequate staffing, and digital literacy.
A recent NEJM Perspective describes an 82-year-old woman living two hours from the nearest hospital. Her AI-enabled devices caught early fluid overload. The alert reached her daughter by text. But false alarms, spotty broadband, and fragmented care had eroded trust. She waited. By the next day, her mother was in respiratory distress.
The system was right. But the infrastructure to act wasn't there. And the message lacked context.
This week, I examine why AI tools fail resource-limited communities and how generative AI — designed correctly — could bridge the gap between clinical data and human understanding.
