AI in medicine expands, aiding efficiency
By Amy Zhou | Staff writer
In 2023 and 2024, the American Medical Association conducted a study of physician’s sentiments towards the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare.
According to the study, “A growing majority of physicians recognize AI’s benefits, with 68% in 2024 reporting at least some advantage in patient care (up from 63% in 2023)”.
Much of the growing positive sentiment towards AI is due to its ability to increase efficiency by streamlining documentation, administrative tasks, and organizational workflows at the hospital.
In fact, AI use cases nearly doubled among survey participants from 2023 to 2024.
At Cleveland Clinic, one of the world’s largest healthcare systems, physicians have already been implementing AI Scribe, a technology that records the conversation during a patient’s visit and then generates a report in Epic.
Given AI’s rapid development and its growing prevalence in daily medical activities, Augusta University’s Medical College of Georgia is looking for ways to incorporate education and training for the next generation of physicians and healthcare providers on how to use this new technology.
Dr. Jeffery Talbert was appointed as the inaugural chair of the Department of AI and Health, a new department established last August at the Medical College of Georgia to bridge the gap between healthcare and technology.
Dr. Talbert’s unique background in political science sparked his early interest in data, which ultimately led him to pursue public policy and, more specifically, health care policy.
“I was always applying this data lens to ask, how can we use data to predict outcomes?” Talbert said, reflecting on where his interests in policy and analytics first converged. “How can we use data to make better decisions?”
Before joining Augusta University, Dr. Talbert served as the Division Chief for Biomedical Informatics at the University of Kentucky, where he secured a National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) to accelerate translational science and innovation in research.
“One of the reasons I was hired is to help AU get their CTSA grant funded here,” Talbert explained. “It would help us speed translation, increase patients in trials, and fund infrastructure like a research data warehouse.”
Dr. Talbert is specifically interested in carrying this vision to MCG and Wellstar.
“They have all this data, and they've never really used their data for research,” Talbert pointed out when discussing the Wellstar healthcare system. “So we want to help them, together as collaborators, use that data for research to increase clinical trial participants and improve their outcomes.”
AI usage and literacy, at both the institutional level and among individual healthcare providers, is critical to the future of medicine.
Dr. Doug Miller, a renowned cardiologist and former dean at three medical schools in the U.S. and Canada, including MCG, previously taught an innovative “AI in Medicine” course at MCG.
“I collaborated with a former IBM computer scientist at Georgia Tech and at that time, the new dean of the School of Computer Science and Cybersecurity, Dr. (Alexander) Schwarzman,” Miller explained.
The curriculum was taught for just two years, 2019 and 2020. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to this course, and it was never offered since.
In 2020 and 2021, MCG underwent a major curriculum redesign. With the volume of material medical students are required to learn, the AI in Medicine course ultimately did not make the final curriculum.
“But, that doesn't mean it couldn’t be reinvented now,” Dr. Miller said.
Dr. Talbert agreed, “I would love to be able to then add in an AI class. Just one lecture would be nice.”
While reintroducing such a course is possible, it presents challenges.
“When something's moving so quickly as this technology, your ability to keep the course current and fresh is almost impossible,” Dr. Miller said. “It’s better to give students the tools and some sense of what the tool can do”.
Knowledge of AI should not be limited to new medical students, as it is equally essential for practicing physicians to stay informed about these rapidly advancing technologies.
In the fall, Dr. Miller, Dean Hess, and colleagues published an article in the American Journal of Medicine urging that physicians renewing their credentials should complete a CME (Continuing Medical Education) course in AI.
Just like physicians are required to learn about narcotics and social issues such as child abuse, there should be required CME courses in AI,” Miller noted.
Miller shared these views with state lawmakers, testifying before the Georgia Senate Study Committee on Artificial Intelligence as part of the medical panel.
John Albers, a Georgia state senator, supported and was a co-author on Dr. Miller’s article.
“We need more real-world, practical engagement for learners and stronger collaboration with partners who can help develop tools that protect patients and the public from unintended errors made by AI,” Miller said.
Both Talbert and Miller agreed that as AI develops, healthcare will need stronger regulation, more education, and a firm commitment to using AI as a tool, not an autonomous decision-maker.
“AI can provide information that might inform a decision by a physician or a team of physicians,” Miller said. “But, AI can never make a patient care plan that isn't overseen by a physician or other care provider.”
Talbert also noted the impact of potential bias in AI.
“We need to do a better job explaining how our models are trained and ensure they are built using a diverse range of patients and care settings, so we don’t end up with biased systems,” DTalbert said.
Ultimately, there is undoubtedly a role for AI technologies in the healthcare environment. But, at MCG and other healthcare systems across the globe, there needs to be a human team in making the final decisions.
Note: Image at the top of the page by Pavel Danilyuk from Pexels.com.
Contact Amy Zhou at amyzhou@augusta.edu.
