M4D: doctors be doctors, let AI do the tedious work

Research methodology This case is based on a real situation and on primary and secondary data collection. It has been drawn up based on five interviews conducted in January and February 2024 with Ignacio Pradera, Javier Pradera, Elena Pradera and Rafel Montané at the main offices of Information and Communication Technologies of Management for Doctors (M4D). In addition, the authors consulted both internal and external archival data that have been properly referenced in the case. Case overview/synopsis It was the fourth week of November 2022. Rafel Montané, Information and Communication Technologies director of M4D, had a meeting at the end of the week with the company’s management team. M4D’s founder and director, Dr Pradera, MD, would be present at this meeting. They had to take a decision on how to address the use of artificial intelligence (AI), and Montané knew that those in charge of each of the areas of M4D had different views on this. Founded in 2004, this consultancy company provided an in-house developed software-as-a-service platform called M4D.clinic to small-medium doctor’s offices, clinics and hospitals that allowed them to optimize and automate key processes both in the back and front end of their practices. The market and the company’s competitors were evolving rapidly, so there could be no delay in making a decision, which would have to form part of the 2023 action plan. The task to be undertaken was very specific: an AI adoption plan had to be put forward that would prioritize the improvement of the existing functions with AI or create new functions based on AI in M4D.clinic. Resources were limited, so Montané was asked to group these functions in three stages aligned with the 2023–2025 fiscal years action plan. Complexity academic level This case has been designed for use on postgraduate courses in operations, innovation or digital transformation. It can be used with MBA students with different profiles and years of experience (full-time, part-time or in executive MBA format) and in both open and in-company training executive programs.