How AI is being incorporated into medical school

AMA News Wire

How AI is being incorporated into medical school

Sep 5, 2024

Augmented intelligence (AI)—often called artificial intelligence—was a valuable tool within health care long before the advent of ChatGPT. AI has helped with predictive modeling, ambient listening, and radiology, but the release and widespread availability of generative AI platforms like ChatGPT have sparked an AI revolution.

Making technology work for physicians

The AMA is working to make sure technology is an asset to physicians—not a burden.

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"When generative AI came out, people really started to notice this new technology, and it brought a lot of attention to health care organizations, to physicians, and to technology stakeholders," said Margaret Lozovatsky, MD, vice president of digital health innovations at the AMA. "We are now seeing this amazing capability of the technologies that are out there to address administrative burdens and to help with cognitive burdens that physicians are experiencing."

The rise of AI has also forced medical schools to take notice, with programs across the country are navigating how to prepare physicians to understand AI and work with it. Dr. Lozovatsky and Kimberly Lomis, MD, vice president of medical education innovations at the AMA, spoke about this curricula challenge in a recent episode of “AMA Update.”

From AI implementation to EHR adoption and usability, the AMA is making technology work for physicians, ensuring that it is an asset to doctors—not a burden.

Introducing new concepts

Dr. Lozovatsky said medical schools should consider five major categories of discussion when considering how to incorporate AI into the curriculum:

Foundational knowledge of AI, including what it can do and how it is integrated into clinical technologies
Critical appraisal, including understanding the value of using AI tools such as decreasing cognitive overload and reducing administrative burdens.
Incorporating into decision making, when and where AI tools should be used.
Technical considerations, including cybersecurity risks and how AI tools can be brought to the bedside or integrated into clinical care.
Key risks and potential consequences of AI tools, including understanding of potential risks such as bias, ethical issues and ensuring processes for continuous evaluation and improvement.

While each category is essential, Dr. Lomis explained medical schools should not have to overwrite their entire curriculum to accommodate the new material.

"The good news is that AI touches everything that we already teach," she said. "And so, if we're strategic about it, once the learners have a little bit of foundation you can weave this through things that are already happening in the curriculum."

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Don’t overwhelm medical students

Learning a new topic can be incredibly challenging for students, but it also poses obstacles for the educators teaching the concepts, particularly when it comes to advanced technology such as AI.

The AMA does not want educators to feel overwhelmed. There are several guiding principles to follow when it comes to considering how to incorporate AI into the curriculum.

The first principle is that all complex concepts can be broken down. The second supports the value of personalized education and hands-on educational opportunities. The third principle calls for schools to integrate expertise into their institutions, particularly when it comes to considering how to incorporate emerging technologies into the bedside patient experience.

A CME series featured on the AMA Ed Hub™ introduces learners to foundational principles in AI and machine learning, a subdomain of AI that enables computers to learn patterns and relationships from data without being explicitly programmed by people. Developed by the AMA ChangeMedEd initiative and the University of Michigan DATA-MD team and geared toward medical students, it is also suitable for residents, fellows, practicing physicians and other health professionals.

"We need to be knowledgeable, and we need to keep up," Dr. Lozovatsky said. "These technologies are moving so quickly, we have to review our programs, competencies, and curricula regularly. It's going to require a commitment of time and energy to make sure that we continue to provide the most up-to-date information to our learners."

The commitment also falls to the students—past, present and future.

"These concepts are important for all physicians to be learning," Dr. Lozovatsky said. "That starts from undergraduate to graduate medical education, and also in continuous professional development."

Dr. Lomis agreed.

"It's easy for educators to pull back and see it [AI] as futuristic," she said. "I would encourage any educator to just dip your toes in enough to see how radically this will change the practice for our future trainees [and] our current trainees in their practice in the future."

“AMA Update” is your source for physician-focused news. Hear from physicians and other experts on trending public health concerns, practice issues and more—because who’s doing the talking matters. Catch every episode by subscribing to the AMA’s YouTube channel or listen to all AMA podcasts at ama-assn.org/podcasts.