Health Care Heroes 2025
PHYSICIAN: Dr. Preston Douglas
Newport Hospital neurologist and neurophysiologist
What led you to choose health care as your profession? I’ve always been interested in how people’s brains and bodies interact to make them who they are. I had planned on a career as a psychologist until I took a neuroscience class in college that opened my eyes to the world of medicine. Neurology called to me from the beginning, possibly because of a family history of multiple sclerosis and migraine.
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How have you helped boost the quality of access to health care? A few projects have been successful in improving patient access to quality neurologic health care. One is implementing a neurology “e-consult” service, expanding brain wave testing services and improving the teleneurology services at Newport Hospital. It allows more complex neurology patients to receive world-class care closer to home.
What is the biggest challenge you and your organization are facing this year? A more long-term challenge will be applying artificial intelligence to the world of medicine. Medical AI has the potential to decrease the paperwork burden on providers and support staff through automated note writing and to return simpler patient messages automatically, among many other potential uses. This would decrease burnout and allow providers to spend more time conversing with patients while the computer takes dictation, documents the encounter and readies the orders to be signed.
Are you confident patient access and quality of care will improve in Rhode Island over the next five years? Why or why not? Yes. The ongoing work by Brown University Health and others to integrate the health care system is already starting to pay off. The dividends will become even more apparent in coming years as efficiency increases and patient outcomes get even better than they are now. Efforts are already being made by many organizations to expand the primary care workforce in Rhode Island, which is crucial. We will literally live or die by the strength of our primary care system in the coming years.
