Artificial intelligence, and concerns that it will lead to misinformation for patients, were the main topic at this year’s House of Representatives meeting of the American Medical Association in Chicago.
The six-day event starting Friday attracts 3,000 doctors, residents and medical students. The group’s committees and lower houses will discuss and potentially vote on a range of policy proposals. Delegates will consider three proposals tied to excitement around the use of AI in healthcare, two of which focus on the technology’s potential miscommunication to patients.
Physicians and payers are investing millions of dollars to deploy AI to streamline workflow, despite the technology’s lack of oversight and propensity for unintended outcomes.
In health systems, AI has become a potential solution to clinician shortages and a way to cut back-office costs. Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic and Google Cloud announced a partnership this week to develop AI-powered enterprise search capabilities for vendors and researchers. Executives at Boston Children’s Hospital are also bullish on AI, including Open AI’s synthetic AI app ChatGPT, which Chief Innovation Officer Dr. John Brownstein likened to the iPhone or Google in terms of transformation .
In a proposal, delegate Dr. Albert Hsu, a reproductive endocrinologist at the University of Missouri Health Care, asks the association to study how AI enhances the impact of public health misinformation, applying online defamation, slander and misrepresentation of doctors.
On the other hand, the American Society of Hand Surgery and the American Society of Hand Surgeons want to address how GPT tools can “fail simple tasks” and “make insidious errors.” Those groups are asking the AMA to launch a study into the consequences of using GPT and to work with federal regulators to protect patients from misleading AI-generated medical advice.
AI has been hailed as a more efficient way for payers to process claims. Multiple intensive care groups have submitted a joint proposal asking the association to promote more regulatory oversight of insurers’ practices, including possible requirements for specialists. health care to review requests before they are denied.
An AMA spokesperson said the association does not comment on the proposals before the vote, which will take place Monday through Wednesday in June. Not every proposal is put up for a vote. The spokesperson said three AI-related proposals will likely be addressed as a discussion item.
Over the past few years, the AMA has established three policies on augmented intelligence, which differs from artificial intelligence in that it still requires a human aspect. In those policies, the group advocated how enhanced intelligence could advance patient care, but also noted the need to establish safeguards to avoid adverse patient outcomes. and other legal responsibilities, and incorporate these topics into medical education.
Other proposals at this year’s meeting included removing body mass index as a standard measure health, promote racially conscious admission practices and establish guidelines to ensure equitable access to care.
