Rodney Gabriel

Vice Chair of Perioperative Informatics, @UCSDHealth | Advancing Patient Care through Ethical AI & Predictive Medicine | Cryoneurolysis Pain Management Expert

[UCSD Regional Anesthesia & Acute Pain Service @UCSD_RAAPM]

Join us for a Virtual Open House for the Regional Anesthesia & Acute Pain Medicine Fellowship at UC San Diego. #nerveblock #anesthesia #regionalanesthesia #acutepain #anesthesiology

[UCSD Regional Anesthesia & Acute Pain Service @UCSD_RAAPM]

Our January UCSD Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain course is coming together, and we’re excited to welcome this year’s learners.
If you’re interested in attending, send us a message for a discount code.
We look forward to seeing you in January.@RodneyGabrielMD @UCSDAnes

[Rodney Gabriel @RodneyGabrielMD]

Especially as the population ages, we need smarter pathways to address #ChronicPain without increasing harm. #OpioidCrisis

[Rodney Gabriel @RodneyGabrielMD]

Unfortunately, we're seeing a dramatic rise in opioid-related overdose and disorder in older adults. Between 2000 and 2020, the rate of deaths from synthetic opioids rose 14-fold in this population. The causes are complex, but one thing is clear: https://t.co/VjiBqb38Q7

[Rodney Gabriel @RodneyGabrielMD]

Our approach to pain in older adults often stalls at prescription, but management must be dynamic and rooted in regular assessment, personalization, and alternatives to long-term opioids.

[Rodney Gabriel @RodneyGabrielMD]

@Anaes_Journal @HouthoffKavita We need to fine tune defining ASA 3s. Maybe break it up into different levels of severity

[British Journal of Anaesthesia @BJAJournals]

Chronic pain isn’t always about structural damage. 🧠 Central sensitisation reshapes the nervous system, amplifying pain signals for a long time.
Explore the mechanisms behind this phenomenon in #BJAEd: https://t.co/qmnc7jCFtx

[Rodney Gabriel @RodneyGabrielMD]

We often talk about multimodal analgesia in terms of medications—and don't get me wrong, medications still can play a key role in healing for many—but this shows how multimodal communication can be just as powerful.

[Rodney Gabriel @RodneyGabrielMD]

I really enjoyed this piece's emphasis on a vastly overlooked tool in reducing opioid addiction risk:

Clear #PatientEducation. https://t.co/Uj52d8I1xB

[Rodney Gabriel @RodneyGabrielMD]

In a recent study of over 10,000 outpatient surgeries, simply combining standardized non-opioid protocols with proactive education nearly halved chronic opioid use. There was no novel molecule. There was no complex tech. It was just consistent messaging and clear expectations.

[Rodney Gabriel @RodneyGabrielMD]

If AI is to be a meaningful part of care, we have to make it reliable for everyone, from clinicians to patients and beyond. Efficiency is easy to measure. Equity isn’t. Both are equally as important.

[Rodney Gabriel @RodneyGabrielMD]

We're not asking anymore whether or not #AI has potential to do good in #healthcare. It clearly does.

I think the bigger question now isn't how to achieve even more great things. It should be how to start preventing the bad. https://t.co/e0Fm8Z1iqG

[Rodney Gabriel @RodneyGabrielMD]

We're seeing a pretty common pattern with AI adoption: new tech enters the system, fixes some problems, and goes on to create and/or exacerbate others.

[Rodney Gabriel @RodneyGabrielMD]

Will we learn from past mistakes in opioid over-prescription, or just replace one crutch with another?

Innovation is necessary. Structural change is non-negotiable.

[Rodney Gabriel @RodneyGabrielMD]

Really fascinating development here. By selectively blocking α2B-adrenoceptors to elevate noradrenaline and activate pain-suppressing α2A pathways, researchers may have sidestepped two decades of pharmacological dead ends in non-opioid pain relief. https://t.co/NM2ctwjK2p

[Rodney Gabriel @RodneyGabrielMD]

But the science is only part of the story. There are still a lot of bigger questions to consider.

Will #healthcare systems adopt it equitably? Will we address cost, access, and patient education?

[Rodney Gabriel @RodneyGabrielMD]

We can build AI tools that support ethical, equitable care, but not if we ignore the current potential dangers.

[Rodney Gabriel @RodneyGabrielMD]

Such invaluable takeaways from this study. It does a great job demonstrating something many in #informatics already deal with:

Just because an #AI model sounds confident doesn't mean it's making the right call. https://t.co/lYl7Trj3Go

[Rodney Gabriel @RodneyGabrielMD]

What this tells me is that #LLMs can't be relied on to make ethical decisions. They’re pattern-matchers, and without human oversight, pattern-matching in medicine can quickly turn into misjudgment. Humans are nuanced, and that nuance is often hard to catch.