Improving Patient Care, Outcomes Through Augmented Intelligence

According to experts cited in an AMA Board of Trustees report, whose recommendations were adopted at the 2018 AMA Annual Meeting, computational methods, techniques, and systems for data analysis can also be used in health care. 

In health care, these techniques are known as augmented intelligence (AI). According to the experts, these methods can enhance patient and physician decision-making, which in turn can improve health outcomes. 

“As technology continues to advance and evolve, we have a unique opportunity to ensure that augmented intelligence is used to benefit patients, physicians, and the broad health care community,” said AMA Trustee Jesse M Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH.

This is the first time the AMA has adopted a policy on the topic of AI.

• Through this adoption, the AMA will seek to: 
• Leverage its ongoing engagement in digital health and other priority areas for improving patient outcomes and physicians’ professional satisfaction;
• Identify opportunities to integrate the perspective of practicing physicians into the development, design, validation, and implementation of health care AI;
• Encourage education for patients, physicians, medical students, other health care professionals, and health administrators to promote greater understanding of the promise and limitations of AI for health care applications; and
• Explore the legal implications of health care AI, such as issues of liability or intellectual property, and advocate for appropriate professional and governmental oversight for safe, effective, and equitable use of and access to health care AI.

“Combining AI methods and systems with an irreplaceable human clinician can advance the delivery of care in a way that outperforms what either can do alone,” Dr Ehrenfeld explained. “But we must forthrightly address challenges in the design, evaluation, and implementation as this technology is increasingly integrated into physicians’ delivery of care to patients.”—Julie Gould