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Friends of Spring Green Library

WRCO Morning Show · Tue Sep 1, 2026

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On our morning show today, we're going to talk about the Spring Green Library, a special event coming up there, and libraries in general.

But in particular, we put the focus on Spring Green today.

Shannon Boyce, Friends of Library President, is our guest in the studio today to talk about the upcoming festivities.

But good to have you in the studio with us today,

Shannon.

Oh, it's so lovely.

Thank you for having me, Phil.

I really appreciate

it.

Tell us a bit about yourself if you would.

Sure.

born in Texas, but raised just a town over in Spring Green, or two towns over, let's not forget Gotham.

As you said, I'm the president of the Friends of the Library, I'm a graphic designer, I freelance, and yeah.

Have you always had an interest in libraries?

I have, yes, always.

I have loved books forever.

My grandmother set me up with a monthly book thing when I was very little.

And then I have all sorts of lovely memories at the Springgreen Library when it used to be in the basement of our village hall.

And then in the early 90s, they built the building it's in now.

And I grew up right across the street from it.

So we were there all the time.

you recall the first book you ever checked out?

Oh my gosh.

I do.

No.

I don't do you really.

I don't know what yours is, but I do.

What was

yours?

Well, the author's name was Burgess.

Burgess.

And I think you can still get them, but they were like a rabbit book and there was a, you know, every animal in the forest had their own book, but Burgess was the author.

And I remember checking that out and then reading the whole series.

Oh, that's so lovely.

Yeah.

Right.

I was a big reader back

then.

Yeah.

Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn and all those things.

Oh,

yes, the classics.

The classics, absolutely.

Definitely.

So that builds a lifelong love of reading.

Definitely.

And I'm glad to know that it's not a lost art that young people are still able to check out books,

right?

It's so lovely.

We have such wonderful children's programs in the summer, coming in and out of the library, kids running in and out, and so excited with their big stacks of books.

And it's just, it's really, really wonderful.

to see really heartwarming.

So did you get promoted or did you run for office to become president of the friends?

Well, I was recruited and when I was recruited to join the board.

Many of the women on the board had been on the board for years and years and years, some as long as 20, 25 years.

And many of them were looking to retire.

And the president at the time, she said, I will go one more year and that's it.

And when it became clear that maybe there wasn't going to be anyone else, I thought to myself, well,

I've always been really good as a group leader of projects, and this is not that different, and I could do that.

So I stepped forward.

I first talked to three of the women who had been presidents in the past just to see, you know, what's the, what's the gist here?

What do you do?

And, and, and they thought that I could do it as well.

And so I put my name forward and, and yeah, I was voted on.

The mission of the friends.

What's like one of the main missions?

Yeah, I guess our biggest thing that we do is fundraising.

But it's also making sure people have access to the library to knowledge for many reasons.

Because the library, it's not just a place that you can go check out a book.

You can get movies.

There's computer access.

It's a warm or a cool place, depending on the season, public restrooms.

We have an insane periodical collection that people love to look at our newspapers and our magazines, so it's a community hub.

Lots of resources there for, you know, inquiring minds, but also somebody that might be working on a paper.

I mean, I think students still do that too.

Definitely, definitely.

Yeah, I hope so.

I hope that AI hasn't outsourced that for us.

I hope that the kids are still coming to the library for research.

Yeah, but fundraiser coming up.

I know that you like to talk about Shannon and a local man who is pretty well known in these parts.

is very well known and much beloved, I would say.

James DeVita, who is a core company actor at American Players Theater, and a community member in Spring Green, and an author.

Yeah, his book, Sanctuary, came out this past April, and it was a big deal.

It's his first book with an agent, and it was published by Penguin Random House, so it's the real deal, and it's a really good book.

It's gripping.

It's a thriller.

It really pulls you in from the first sentence.

and you just can't put it down.

I read it in one day, actually.

Is that binge reading?

Do they call

it?

Yes, exactly.

That's

a good thing.

That's better than binge watching, I think.

Yes, I agree.

But it had to be good to hold your interest like

that.

Yeah, yes, definitely.

Yeah, the story and the characters.

I mean, it's...

It feels very real.

I feel like the research he did and whatever, it almost gave me a little bit of anxiety.

Like, oh my gosh, could something like this really happen?

And in that way, the realness of it, you know, the characters feel so real and you really see what's happening.

It feels very cinematic.

And yeah, he's a beautiful writer.

it is fiction?

It is fiction, yes, correct.

And the just of it is that...

Things in the United States have not gone well.

Climate change has hit and there's this billionaire and he has built himself and his family an underground bunker in Kansas.

And when everything goes bad, they escape to the bunker and go underground.

But they're not the only ones there.

There are a bunch of people, local people in the town who have come out and they're living above ground in the house that's built there.

And it's this

play between these two people, the sort of haves and have-nots, and what happens, and it ends up, you know, kind of everyone's a loser in this game, and a fascinating, very interesting read.

Could be a movie someday it sounds like.

Oh my gosh yes I could totally see that.

tell us about the event that will feature Jim DeVita.

Yeah so we're calling it a book tasting and it's again it's a fundraiser for the Springgreen Library.

It's going to be held on Sunday September 13th at the White School in Springgreen and it's going to be catered by a red barn catering.

So it'll start at 11.30 in the morning and we'll have a beautiful catered lunch and then we're going to have a discussion with James about the book and about reading and libraries and we are accepting questions when you buy your ticket so you can, if there's anything you're burning to ask about,

the specific book or about writing a book, you can write in your question, and we'll just have a lovely discussion that'll last about an hour.

And then after that, James has been very kind and he's going to sign anyone's book who would like.

And in addition to the lunch and the talk, in the cost of the ticket, you will also get a book.

And if you already have the book, which seems to be the case for a lot of spring greenians,

You can choose to donate the cost to the to the friends and we'll give that right over to the library and it's a hundred dollars for a ticket and Yeah, the event will be about two hours, maybe three depending on how long the the signing goes at the end

Do you have a burning question you want to ask about it that you could share?

my gosh.

I did make some notes the other day because I am meeting James this afternoon to sort of start some research.

But I think one of the things I wanted to ask him is what are some of the books he read in preparation to write this book?

Because it feels very informed.

Like he didn't just sit down and make all of this up.

Like I think he must have done some reading on

on a number of subjects to get to where he got to write this.

I would think you would almost have to.

Right?

Yeah, I agree.

And you said this is his fourth book.

I had no idea.

believe so, yes.

He has, his book before this was called A Winsome Murder, and then he has a book called Silenced.

which is a young adult novel and then another young adult novel called Blue.

So I do, I believe this is his fourth.

And then he also adapts plays.

So he has written several adaptations of Shakespeare and things as well.

wonder where he finds the time.

Oh my gosh,

I have no idea.

Working full time and then doing this whole thing too.

Yeah,

yes, definitely.

Good.

So it's a good event.

Is there a deadline for people to get tickets?

There is, yes.

If you would like to purchase your ticket, you should do so by the end of the day this Friday, September 4th.

So that's a good thing to mark on the calendar.

Is there the money raised from this then Shannon?

Is there a specific goal for the Spring Green Library?

Yeah, we're with the money raised for this.

So the tickets are pretty limited.

We're only able to have 50 people at the event.

I don't know if anybody out there has been to the White School in Spring Green, but it's not a massive venue.

It'll be a pretty intimate event.

And so with the money raised from this, it's going to benefit the periodical collection at the Spring Green Library, which, as I said earlier, is a highly used, very popular section, which I know maybe feels a little incongruous to the lives we live today where we're all reading.

things like that on our phones, but we really, it's very popular.

People come in, there are big squishy armchairs, and you know, it's a little community related, but also people just sit in silence and they grab a magazine or a newspaper, and it's really lovely to witness and equally lovely to sit down and read something.

I'm glad to know that they still do that, because as a lot of the periodicals have gone to online homes.

They

have, they have, that's very true, yeah.

But yeah, we still get

You know, the Wisconsin State Journal and the New York Times, all the big newspapers, they may not be daily anymore, but we certainly get the bigger weekend editions.

And in addition to a number of magazines, and I know our library director, Emily, was very surprised at how popular our periodical section was and how big it is.

There's a lot to choose from.

And that's great.

And in your area, I think about, you know, you have ABT and you have, you know, the Frank Lloyd Wright, Tally Esson and all of those things.

It's nice that you can kind of utilize those resources and people that work there and kind of work together, isn't

it?

It is.

It's really lovely.

Yeah.

American Player's Theater has been wonderful.

The marketing woman out there, Hannah.

We sat down and she was like, oh my gosh, yes, we would love to help you.

And so they shared our event on their newsletter and on their social media.

And it really is very community-based.

We, I think, all really enjoy working together.

And we all live together.

We're all in spring green.

It's wonderful to have, you know, a Tony award-winning theater and a UNESCO World Heritage site right down the road.

Not

everybody has that.

Not everybody has

that.

The community is a lot larger than in Spring Green as well.

Yeah.

Are you always looking for volunteers?

We are, yeah.

If you're interested in volunteering, you can send us an email at friendssglibraryatgmail.com.

And yeah, we would love to have you.

We're also always

is looking for people to join and become friends members.

If that's something you're interested in, you can go to the Spring Green Library website and there's a tab you can go to and look for the Friends of the Library and you can download a form and sign up to be a friend.

We would love to have you.

What are some things that volunteers might do

then?

Yeah, so we have three or four events during the year and we

For volunteers, we ask that they come in and help us set up events.

We do a lot of used book sales.

big fundraiser after the book tasting will be the first Saturday in December for country Christmas and it's called, we call it our bacon book sale and so you would come in and help us organize all the books and price them and price the baked goods and it's usually a couple days to set up and

And it does end up being some sort of manual labor if you want to volunteer.

Not always though.

I'm always looking for people to hang up posters for us for our events and to create signs.

So there's a number of things that you can do to help us out.

Wonderful.

And in terms of some things going on this fall, I mean, I guess we just, we should maybe talk about the summer because, uh, you know, the summer, he had the, a lot of kids programs going on there.

Was it pretty

successful?

Yeah.

Yes.

Definitely.

Yeah.

Um, and, and our big event during the summer was, um, we have a community wide garage sale and this year we worked together with the,

Spring Green Community Center, and we did kind of half and half.

They worked on the garage sale portion, and we worked on what we call a book rummage.

And it's sort of our less organized book sale, books and boxes, and people get to come and dig through and find treasures.

And we sold treats and drinks this year, which was really nice.

It's a crazy event.

It's so popular.

We get people from all over.

I just spoke with our library director, Emily, and she said,

Um, when we need to nail the dates down for 20, 27, because people are going to start calling in January about when this thing will be again.

So, um, so we're, we're looking at nailing down the dates for next year for that.

But yeah, very, very popular.

It's great fun to be digging.

And, you know, I dig for other things like vinyl records, but it's really cool to find a long lost book or something.

You didn't know that you need it, right?

It is, it is.

Yeah.

And, and I think this event is fun in that way because

because you can come and dig through all of our books and find something amazing.

And then you can go out and shop all of the different garage sales all over the area and find other treasures, you know, clothes and electronics and et cetera, et cetera.

Can you still check out DVDs?

That's not a thing of the past.

No, it's not a thing of the past.

I don't know how much longer it will go forward.

I don't know how much money they're putting into the collection these days, but yeah.

Movies are definitely very popular.

You can definitely check out.

Um, and I shouldn't say even just movies, but they have TV shows as well.

Seasons of TV shows.

That's great.

Can people donate?

Um, like if they're done with their DVDs or they're done with their books, do they, do they donate them?

Yeah.

Actually, um, the friends of the library has a used book collection and in books, we also take DVDs.

And it's actually the first Saturday of each month, so it's coming up this Saturday and it'll be from 10 a.m.

Until noon and it's in the community room at the Spring Green Library.

What about contributions financially?

Yeah, we would love that.

donations are definitely much appreciated and if that's something you're interested in you can mail a check to the Springgreen Library and they'll make sure just say that you want it to go to the friends and and it will I mean there's really not much of a difference.

It cycles through us and goes right back to the library.

Really cool to hold that book in your hands though, you know, because I've had a Kindle for a number of years and I don't know that I've ever read a book on it.

I think I've just scrolled online.

You know, I want to have that real book in my

hands.

Yeah, I agree.

I'm a real book reader.

I love the smell of books and the heft of them in your hands.

I love to be able to just like look down and see, oh, I'm about three quarters of the way through.

Yeah, it's magical reading a book.

I almost always have one in my bag with me wherever I go.

Yeah,

you don't go to the last page first though.

Sometimes

do.

I like to know

what happens.

The real world is harsh enough.

In my books, I like to be able to sometimes skip forward and see how it ends.

And you can do that with a real book.

And

you can.

Right.

So it's great.

It's great to introduce books to a young person and watch, as I used to say, their world grow, right?

It is.

Yeah, yes.

My niece, Mildred, is a big reader.

And every time she comes over, we almost always end up going over to the library so that she can check out a new book.

And so it's talking about what she's reading.

and it is, it expands your world in such a beautiful way.

Do you have any other events with authors planned down the road?

We don't at this point, but if the book tasting goes well this year, it's definitely something we would look into doing again and we'd love to feature other local authors.

So if you're a local author out there and you want your book featured, reach out to us.

Great.

What makes you most proud to be a member of the Friends of the Library of Spring

Green?

difficult question I just I'm so proud of our library we have such a wonderful library it's as I'm sure anyone anywhere would say about their own library you know it's such a community hub and it's impossible to go into the library and not run into someone and chat for a while and

And I feel like we have such a wonderful director and wonderful librarians.

They really, they care, you know, they take time to help you find things and answer your questions.

And it's just a really, really, really lovely.

lovely library to represent.

Absolutely.

And we're so fortunate that we have them in, in our small towns in the area here.

We are, we really are.

Yeah.

I'm, I'm so grateful for libraries in general, wherever you are.

I love, I, I know Richland center is not in the south central library system.

So I, I never go to the Richland center library, although I'm kind of, I kind of should, I have heard it's a really good library.

It is.

Yes.

But

it's so fun to, to bop around to the different libraries or my card works and I'll just go.

and see, you know, what do they have?

I love looking at the sort of serendipity collection or lucky day collection and just seeing, you know, what's around, what's new.

And yeah.

It's nice to see that communities have invested in that.

Muskete has a nice library that's fairly new as well.

Oh, nice.

And you go down Highway 14, Black Earth has one.

Oh, yeah, has a lot of the

library as Mezzo also

has a little

library in the old train depot there.

So that's great that it's continuing on that tradition.

Anything else you want to add about the James DeVita event coming up later this

month?

Not that I can think of, just that we would really, you know, we'd really love to have you there.

I think it's going to be a really wonderful event.

Like I said, it's a small venue, so it's going to be really intimate.

You're really going to get to like talk to the author and

And I think I think in that way it'll be beautiful and the the food sounds like it's gonna be amazing So it'll be it'll be a really really fun time.

I'm really excited

and through event bright comm.

Yes through event bright comm.

Yep

You have a book in your future.

You're gonna write a book

Well, I do have a little something started on my computer

I don't work on it every day.

That's James's thing is, you know, you got to sit down and work on it every day.

And I don't work on it every day, but I work on it at least monthly.

So yeah, that's a dream.

They say all of us have a book.

in them.

So they

do.

Yeah.

It's a little bit like digging for treasure.

There you are.

Yeah.

And I think about things sometimes, you know, and I need to have just a journal to write down, you know, because, you know, you have all these thoughts and it's hard to sit down and think of them all at

once.

It is.

Yeah.

I have many, many notes on my notes app on my phone with ideas.

Absolutely.

So we all should get to work on that.

Well, good luck to you.

We hope it goes well for you.

And again, the deadline to get tickets is this Friday then.

Yep.

Thank you so much, Phil.

I really appreciate you having me.

Nice having in here.

Shannon boys, friends of the library president of the spring green library.

And again, the James DeVita event coming up later this month in our area.

We'll have more of the morning show coming up.

Richland Hospital has sent us some great guests here this year, and we're pleased to introduce you to Dr. Muhammad who joins us.

Hospitalist from the Richland Hospital here in Richland Center.

Well, good morning, Dr. Muhammad.

Yeah,

good morning.

Yeah, thank you

for having me.

Great to have you in the studio here.

So tell us a little bit about yourself

if you would.

Yeah.

Personal history, interesting.

I grew up in England, Manchester.

I did my medicine there and then I came to Oklahoma City to do my training here.

US does have actually one of the best medical training systems we have.

So a lot of physicians from outside come here to train.

After getting training here, got married, got kids.

and just ended up staying.

And then now I'm part of the original hospital esteem here.

Awesome.

And so what drew you to this type of medicine?

So I like the rural medicine.

I think it has a different feel than the bigger city medicine.

You have more one-to-one with patients.

You are able to form better connections with the community, with the patients.

And working at the smaller hospitals, you feel like you're not part of the big wheel.

You're a cog in the wheel that's just going around.

And I believe working in the smaller hospitals, you're able to make much more difference and definitely more job satisfaction.

I love what I do.

And when you're able to make the extra connection with the patients, they get better.

You get to know the family and what they do.

So it's very satisfying.

That's interesting you say that because I think I want to say patients feel like that too in the smaller hospitals.

They don't feel like there's such a number.

And I'm guessing it's interesting as a physician you feel that way as

well.

Yes.

It's the same thing.

And you know, core philosophy of our Richland hospital esteem.

So hospitalists are physicians who take care of the patient that are admitted to the hospital.

And our goal at Richland has been to keep

patients local, meaning if you or your loved ones get sick.

Hey, what can we do to keep you guys here and provide the excellent care?

So hospital has invested a lot into it.

So we have a program called campus program where we have all the access to the specialists.

They're able to see the patient at bedside through the telemedicine program.

We also collaborate with UW ICU team.

So if somebody with serious illness that need more ICU level care, we have ICU, open ICU.

UW intensivists are able to access and help us manage the patient.

And really, the experience with the patient has been, you know, they are thankful.

We are able to provide everything.

They are able to stay local and it's really helpful for the families too for visitors to come and visit.

I think it can be a track to go down to Madison or Gundersen.

It definitely is.

I'm guessing that cuts down on the number of transfers to the other hospitals.

Yes it does and they are grateful too because they're always also full.

And because we're able to keep the local patients local and really provide the care here.

And there's so much more to it.

When a patient is staying local, we know more about them, what their needs are, what their nuances are at home, if they need more help at home or not.

And so really able to provide the holistic care.

Whereas if you're in the bigger hospital, we do transfer patients that need to go.

For example, if you're having a heart attack and you need the cardiac stance, obviously you go.

But sometimes it can be difficult to kind of have the full picture.

So you get treated and then you go out.

Are you planning to live in the area then?

I actually

live in Chicago.

five of us that rotate through.

So we do five to seven, seven days shift.

And our goal is to provide 24 hour uninterrupted care.

So when we are on service, we are on for 24 hours.

We also have a nocturnal nest, meaning that physician that comes on at night, but he's through tally, he comes on at 11 states at seven.

So we rotate through five to seven days, we go home and then come back after a couple of weeks.

And I've been working with Richland, I believe since 2021.

Okay.

So you came through a tough time with COVID.

Oh, yes.

I mean, those are some things, I think we all learned something from that.

Yeah.

And

hopefully we learned some positive things, right?

Positive things.

Yes.

Uh, it was a very, you know, strange in the sense that we really never encountered something like that before.

And at Richland, I mean, I remember case after case of just folks really sick.

It was a sad time, very difficult time for everybody, even nursing staff, physicians, hospitals.

I mean, a lot of burnout.

We were always full.

But you know, it really made it more cohesive, more organized.

And I think it has a lot of positive has come out of it.

Yeah, I think we all learned a little bit from it.

And certainly, I think the strings are different, right?

From when they, when it first hit, right?

Yeah, yeah.

And the virus mutates so rapidly.

So, and the more it mutated, it become less and less weird.

So which was a good thing.

But still important too.

Plan ahead and if you prefer, you know, get your shots and everything.

It's that time of year to start encouraging, I guess,

right?

Exactly.

And, you know,

on stuff, you know, prevention is better than part of cure.

So, you know, these vaccinations, especially in our community, we definitely recommend getting all, stay up to date on your vaccinations, especially the pneumonia that influenza season, check your COVID level, COVID status too, and all the vaccinations, especially for us, we get ordered to, there's, there's shingles, there are RSV vaccination to RSV, particularly if you have longer shoes, you have

Because those viruses, me and you, get it.

If somebody's healthy, they just have sniffles for a couple of days and they're fine.

But if somebody already has under lung condition, then they make some really sick and we see them in the hospital.

Then they're tied down for a few days in the hospital and sometimes it can be difficult to turn them around.

And, you know, just getting the shot and preventing that it goes a long way.

What's the most rewarding thing about your job, Dr. Muhammad?

So my most rewarding thing about my job is when I see folks get better.

So that's a unique thing about being a hospitalist is when somebody comes in really sick and then you treat them and then get better and they get to go home and live their life.

And it kind of makes, especially in the sense that you were there to help them.

achieve that.

I think as a human being, I think we are most vulnerable when we are sick.

You know, you and then you're coming to the hospital and it's a big responsibility too.

And then I'm, you know, feel privileged to be in the place where I'm able to make maybe a small difference, reduce somebody's suffering.

They can go and live their life.

I think it's very rewarding.

Is that the reason why you chose this field?

Yes.

It goes back to my younger brother.

He was 16 in England.

He was going to be a cricket, I don't know whether you're familiar, similar to baseball.

He's a cricket player, up and coming.

Everybody was excited.

And then suddenly he starts losing coordination.

We're like, okay, what's going on?

He's like walking.

He's going on a different side.

I was actually training in study to be a pilot.

That's where I was going.

He got sick.

He had brain cancer and we spent time with him in the hospitals.

Unfortunately, he passed away.

And then, you know, just being in the hospital and seeing that it just kind of the switch clicked like, you know, practicing medicine.

I think it's

It's the right call for me, how the physicians there helped my parents go through that and how, you know, my parents looked up to them and having, hey, you know, there's this person that can help us.

And they were there, even though, you know, it was uncurable, but they were there.

And that really pushed me towards medicine and I love what I do.

I'm guessing that you learned a lot from that experience, probably about

bedside manner and things like that and how to treat people.

Yeah.

I think sometimes, um, when we get busy, uh, you know, we lose track of,

you

know, sometimes patients become a number.

Uh, and, you know, that's the reason I kind of switched over to the rural hospital was is, Hey, it's not just a number.

You need to be bedside, interact with a patient.

And, you know, there is value to a therapeutic relationship.

between me and the patient.

If the patient trusts me, he feels like, hey, this doctor really cares about me, wants me to get better.

And they are really more likely to take the medication that I tell him, or maybe more likely to listen to your advice.

So I think that is so huge.

But, you know, unfortunately, it's one of the pieces that gets neglected.

In the bigger hospital where I worked, they are just fall, you're just running, you're seeing the most critical patients, making sure they're alive and it can be very rushed.

But that's why I like the slower pace and really develop a relationship and a bond with the patients.

And I think as a patient, if you've got that, that positive attitude you've got, you feel like people are pulling for you.

I mean, that goes a long

ways.

Yeah.

Yeah, it does.

I mean, I think positive attitude is key.

There's been studies that show the folks that are more positive tend to do better.

They're more likely to go home early versus other folks.

And then to cultivate the positive attitude, I think you need the whole staff pulling for you.

We are very blessed at Richland, you know, we had dedicated nursing staff, the case management team, the social work team, physical therapy.

So we kind of get everybody jumps on it and keep the positive attitude and help the patient.

And once they feel like it is a whole team pulling for us, and I think they get invested in it too.

Yeah.

Having been a patient there, I can, uh, you know, and, and the whole nursing staff, I mean, everybody just, it's a, it's a big team.

Isn't

it?

It is, it is.

And, and it does take a lot of work.

And, um, and, uh, I think one of the nursing.

It's amazing what they do.

And then we have the social work team, nursing team, nutritionists, physical therapy, occupational therapy.

So there's so much in the background that goes on just to take care of one patient.

But we are very lucky to have a very dedicated team.

One stop shop though, some ways, you know, lots of things you can do.

And for you, um, I'm guessing you really never get bored because it's always, you're not specializing in one form of medicine.

You see something different every day.

Every day.

Yes.

And I like that intellectually challenge.

You know, it kind of keeps you on your toes.

I have patients with lung problems or kidney problems or stomach problems or brain stroke.

So you get to see a whole variety of stuff.

And

I enjoy, definitely enjoy that aspect.

There's never a boring day.

The future of medicine, you know, what excites you down the road and the possibilities and things like that?

think AI is very exciting.

And the new research, they are happening and how it's aiding the new developments.

That's very exciting.

Also, you know, as a physician, AI already is starting to help us, like, you know, less time.

in front of the computer more time with the patient.

So it's been really helpful.

That's been the biggest excitement for me is sometimes, you know, when you see the patients, you need to finish the notes.

And then it's always in the back of your head, I got 10 notes to finish today.

It's a long time, but this AI makes it easier, takes the burden off.

And then you can just pull up a chair and sit next to the patient and talk about other things.

So.

I'm very excited about that.

Yeah.

I'm curious how AI does assist you because, you know, there are some, I'm guessing with notes, it condenses things, you know, write me a note, you know, you can get your job done faster than

faster.

Yeah.

It's, uh, it's amazing technology.

Like, um, so it just listens when you talk into the page and you got their permission.

Hey, there's going to be a listening and they're all HIPAA validated.

So.

They're skewer and it listens when I talk to you, regular conversation, it recognizes my voice, it's normal, I'm talking and when you talk and then is able to synthesize the whole thing and it's getting more accurate every day and when you pull up the note, it's already there.

You just go through

it.

What

about diagnosis though?

Diagnosis, I think it's a hit and miss on AI still.

So I think the clinical experience, I don't think you'll be able to replace that.

but really helps us.

So I can kind of talk to it.

Hey, this is what I'm thinking diagnosis is that my treatment plan and it's able to kind of incorporate that.

because we always tell people to stay off the internet because you can scare yourself if you're having these symptoms.

You might think you're on your death bed after a little bit.

Yeah.

You know, like sometimes, uh, yeah, my, my dad has standards and to do that.

And

And he's like, you know, I'm surprised I'm still alive with all this that's going on with me.

I think it's definitely with caution.

Always seek medical advice if you have a concern because it's a whole picture, right?

Right.

And it will always tell you the most severe part.

And then as a clinician, you're able to listen and kind of narrow down.

Hey, this is what might be going on.

Sure.

Manchester, England.

And what kind of music did you grow up listening to?

Music.

I was mainly rock person, but mainly in Manchester is soccer.

So football is in blood.

So my most weekends were spent at the Manchester City Stadium.

There you go.

Yeah, just watching them play.

Did you watch the World Cup this year?

Yes, yes.

I watched the World Cup.

I was very excited.

I think it was a really good World Cup.

I was actually in Spain when Spain won the World Cup.

Were you

really?

Oh,

awesome.

It was a very, very neat experience.

But that was a big party.

was, it was, yeah.

I think they live on that.

That's their only thing, football and soccer.

And it was just like, yeah, it was crazy experience.

Well, it's really good to have you in the studio, Dr. Muhammad, because, you know, you've been here a long time.

People have probably seen you maybe passed in the hall or maybe, maybe you've treated them, but it's nice to kind of hear from you and anything else you want to add today.

No, thank you so much for having me and we are always available at the hospital.

So please, if something is going on, something is bothering you.

And one thing that we noticed, especially for our male colleagues, I want to pass on that we are a little bit slower to seek medical attention compared to our female counterparts.

So always please, if something is bothering you, something does not feel right or something doesn't quite sit well.

Please come in and see your doctor.

That's a good point.

Yeah, I think us we as males we get a little stubborn sometimes.

Yeah,

we got this

Well nice to meet you in person.

Thank you.

Yeah, you bet.

Dr. Muhammad joining us here representing the Richland Hospital on this report for the morning show