Thoughts on the United Nations Address
By Paul McCune, Founder and CEO of Phoenix Ortho
This week, the conversation around artificial intelligence changed in an interesting way.
President Trump used the term “Super Intelligence” — SI — instead of Artificial Intelligence during his United Nations address.
Whatever you think about the terminology, the distinction caught my attention because it gets at something we have been thinking about at Phoenix Ortho for some time:
Intelligence should not be measured by how impressive the technology sounds. It should be measured by what it can actually do for the person using it. And physicians should not have to wait for some distant future to see that value.
That’s why we refer to our intelligence technology as PoGo IQ. The name was not a reaction to Tuesday's discussion of Super Intelligence. It was forward-looking: a recognition that the word artificial could eventually become an awkward way to describe intelligence that is increasingly capable, contextual, and useful. IQ has always been associated with measuring human intelligence. PoGo IQ points toward something broader — intelligence that can bring together clinical medicine, the business of medicine, coding, documentation, workflow, data, and decades of orthopedic knowledge in the moment. Its domain knowledge can extend beyond what any one individual can hold and apply at once, allowing PoGo IQ to augment the physician with a breadth of context no single person could be expected to carry into every encounter.
... the opportunity is much bigger than technology that writes, summarizes, or answers questions. The real breakthrough comes when intelligence understands intent, context, workflow, permissions, protocols, data, and the desired outcome — and then orchestrates the work. With Phoenix Go and PoGo IQ, that shift is already taking shape.
And orchestration must be fluid. In our intent-driven PoGo IQ demonstrations, that means more than completing a command. PoGo IQ is intentional, fluid, adapts, and flows with your workflow. The provider should never reach a dead end where the only way forward is to return to the keyboard or mouse. The provider expresses the intention, and PoGo IQ keeps the workflow moving — smoothly and seamlessly — from one outcome to the next.
Here is what that looks like in our demonstrations. Imagine a physician simply saying:
“PoGo, create a visit.”
“PoGo, insert my Rotator Cuff Protocol.”
“PoGo, generate my office note.”
“PoGo, show me patients with a rotator cuff tear who had an arthroscopic procedure and a positive Drop Arm Test.”
The physician should not have to know what screen to open, which menu to navigate, which database tables contain the information, or which sequence of steps produces the result.
The physician should express the intent.
PoGo IQ should understand how to get there — and keep the provider moving without dead ends.
This is the shift we are bringing to physicians through Phoenix Go + PoGo IQ today:
Physician → Intent → PoGo IQ → Outcome
The complexity does not disappear. It moves.
For decades, physicians have carried the complexity of healthcare software. They learned the screens, menus, clicks, workflows, and workarounds.
Phoenix Go begins to reverse that relationship now.
Instead of physicians learning software, software begins learning physicians.
Instead of better navigation, we move toward eliminating navigation.
Instead of intelligence merely generating an answer, it can help orchestrate an outcome — while the physician remains the decision-maker.
Call the broader movement AI, SI, Super Intelligence, or something else. The terminology will continue to evolve.
For us, PoGo IQ says something important: intelligence is valuable when it understands the physician, understands orthopedics, understands the workflow, and puts that understanding to work. That is the purpose behind PoGo IQ in Phoenix Go today.
The physician owns the intent. PoGo IQ owns the orchestration. The infrastructure performs the work.
The future of physician-centered software is already beginning in Phoenix Go.
Warm regards,
Paul McCune
Founder and CEO, Phoenix Ortho