Administrative Burden Keeps Clinicians From Bedside: Amy Morris, MD

Clinicians are voicing growing frustration over electronic medical record (EMR) inboxes, insurance peer-to-peer calls, and other nonmedical tasks that keep them away from the bedside, according to Amy Morris, MD, FCCP, of UW Medicine, chair of the CHEST 2026 Scientific Program Committee. Morris said that concern, along with the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI), is reflected throughout the submissions and programming at this year’s meeting in Phoenix, Arizona.

CHEST 2026: What’s New and What’s Next

With so many developments across pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine, Morris was reluctant to pick favorites, but she pointed to glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists as one of the most visible developments. Their role in sleep medicine is well known even to the public, and emerging data, including in cirrhosis, suggest they will show up in clinical care in surprising places. The meeting aims to serve attendees who want the latest guidelines and trial results to apply next week, as well as those interested in early science still months to years from practice, so every attendee can stay at the cutting edge.

Morris also emphasized that advanced practice providers, respiratory therapists, and physicians all belong at national meetings, because patients deserve every member of their care team to be current on the latest standards: “We practice as a team in real life, and so we should learn as a team at the national meetings.”

Getting Back to the Bedside

Many sessions explore how AI could help address problems that technology itself introduced, such as hours spent at a computer instead of with patients and time lost to insurance calls. Morris urged health system leaders and payers to listen to this growing chorus, since bedside providers often lack the power to fix their practice environment themselves. “We want to be taking care of our patients at the bedside. We don’t want to be dealing with those issues,” she said