Ep. 339 AI's Role in Enhancing Urology Care with Dr. David Canes

By his own estimate, an AI scribe gives one urologist about two hours of his day back, and an evidence tool built into it has taught him something new in the clinic almost every day. On this episode of BackTable Urology, Dr. Ruchika Talwar welcomes back Dr. David Canes, urologist at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center and founder of WellPrept, to talk about how urologists can practically put AI to work. Dr. Canes explains why he sees this moment as a renaissance for physicians, how an AI scribe turned him from author into proofreader, by his estimate saving about two hours a day, and why evidence tools running alongside the scribe now answer questions in the exam room, including a question about post-prostatectomy dysorgasmia, a complaint that rarely comes up in clinic.

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Timestamps

00:00 - Introduction03:32 - Getting Started With AI in Practice07:24 - AI Scribes and Cognitive Load14:18 - AI Evidence Tools at the Point of Care18:41 - Context, Pre-Charting, and Evidence in the Exam Room24:52 - AI for Email and Personal Workflow29:09 - Building a Permanent AI Memory34:20 - AI Skepticism, Privacy, and Intellectual Honesty40:47 - Will AI Replace Physicians?46:39 - Pre-Charting, Patient Education, and Care Journeys49:27 - Reducing the In-Basket Burden53:04 - Where to Start With AI55:27 - Closing Remarks

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More about this episode

The conversation then moves beyond the clinic. Dr. Canes describes an AI layer on email that flags what cannot wait, and a permanent AI memory built from plain text files that keeps research, licenses, talks, and family life organized, with a firm rule that no protected health information goes anywhere without a business associate agreement. He and Dr. Talwar discuss what work is worth delegating to AI, push back on a recent JAMA perspective arguing that autonomous AI may outperform physicians, and run through tools for pre-charting, patient education, postoperative care journeys, and front-desk calls. Dr. Canes closes with simple advice for exhausted physicians: ask the AI you already use to build you a 90-day plan.

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Resources

Will Autonomous AI Exceed AI-Aided Physicians as the Best Medical Care? JAMA. 2026https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2852952 The utility of tamsulosin in the management of orgasm-associated pain: a pilot analysis. Eur Urol. 2005https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15716202/ WellPrepthttps://www.wellprept.com BackTable Urology Episode 5