Experts debate navigating the 'wild, wild west' of AI in health care

Key takeaways:

• In a virtual event, experts discussed the ins and outs of AI’s applications in health care.
• They stressed the importance of clinicians’ voices in these conversations and during new product development.

As AI is integrated into health care, clinicians can acknowledge the technology’s limitations and help shape its future in medicine, according to experts.

Healio, in partnership with LinkedIn News, hosted a virtual live event with a panel of speakers who discussed the use of AI in health care. The panelists included Mara Schenker, MD, MBA, a professor at Emory University School of Medicine and chief of orthopedics at Grady Memorial Hospital; Raihan Faroqui, MD, an internal medicine physician and head of clinical partnerships at Guaranteed; Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA, president and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs; and Hansa Bhargava, MD, chief of clinical strategy and innovation officer at Healio.

In the last year, the FDA approved more than 900 AI technologies, Bhargava told Healio. Just a fraction have been integrated into hospital settings, but some tools that affect clinicians’ administrative burden — transcription and ambient listening services, etc. — are being integrated quickly.

“Although AI can help with gaps in our broken health system, we must ensure safeguards around privacy, diverse data and have a ‘human in the loop’ to assure and maintain algorithms,” Bhargava said. “Doctors should be at the table in the development and maintenance of these [AI] to propagate best outcomes.”

During the event, the speakers answered questions from clinicians around the world as they discussed the nuanced applications of AI in health care, the ethical concerns many have and the importance of clinicians’ voices in both new innovations and AI’s implementation.

The group discussed AI’s benefits and dangers, agreeing that, as far as clinical decision-making goes, the technology should be used only to augment physicians’ expertise — and even that augmentation should have limitations, some said.

For example, Meyers stressed the importance of considering accountability, and that AI cannot be held liable for errors.

“Just because the FDA approves a device or a drug doesn't mean the doctor can use it willy nilly and not be held accountable,” he said. “We get paid to exercise judgment, not do what anybody tells us to do, whether it's a person or an algorithm, and that's why we are ultimately responsible.”

He compared it to a GPS service like Google Maps suggesting a left turn when the driver can clearly see there is no road.

“So you make a right, you override the system, because you've had experience that informs your judgment,” Meyers said. “It's the same thing.”

Although he said there is a difference between medical malpractice and product liability claims, the responsibility ultimately lies with clinicians.

“Right now, we're trying to figure out, are you liable for using artificial intelligence incorrectly or not using it when you should have? We don't know the answer to that question, and the answer will be determined by a jury when you get sued,” Meyers said. “Ultimately, you can't sue a computer, you can't sue a software, you sue the doctor and everybody else who touched the patient. If you think you're immune from this and you point fingers at the vendor, you're going to be sitting there very sorry.”

“Despite all the doom and gloom,” this is one of the best times to be a clinician, Myers concluded.

“But you cannot practice medicine the way your father did,” he added. “You must adapt to the changing environment.”

Bhargava agreed that adapting is critical at this juncture where so many important decisions are being made that will ultimately shape the future of the medical landscape.

“We're in the wild, wild west,” she said. “We don't know [what’s] going to ultimately stick or what's not, but if you're not helping to shape that right now, then you won't be able to say anything later on. This is the time, ... it's being determined right now, and we need to all work together on every level — whether it's industry, local government, federal government, doctors, hospital boards, whatever it is — to make sure our voice gets heard.”

Reference:

• How AI is reshaping medicine and medical careers. https://www.linkedin.com/events/howaiisreshapingmedicineandmedi7282183229808283648/comments/. Jan. 22, 2025.