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| | | News and views you ought to know about:- The American Medical Association has weighed in on the White House’s AI Action Plan. For the most part, the group doesn’t refute much of the document so much as amplify some of its talking points that have ramifications for healthcare. One exception is the plan’s open disdain for “woke” AI. “A foundational principle of the plan is ensuring that AI systems are free from ideological bias and designed to pursue objective truth, which the AMA agrees is crucial for trustworthy AI in sensitive areas such as healthcare and medical research,” the association notes in a position statement posted Aug. 7. “Eliminating references to misinformation and diversity, equity and inclusion in risk management frameworks,” however, “may limit attempts to appropriately address AI bias and discrimination. Maximum effort to mitigate the risks of bias in AI systems is critical to enhance trust and improve care.”
- The AMA breaks its full take into four healthcare-specific imperatives: 1.) Physicians must be full partners at every stage of the AI lifecycle. 2.) A coordinated, transparent whole-government approach is necessary. 3.) Secure data that is free from bias will enhance trust. 4.) Upskilling the physician workforce is critical to advancing adoption.
- The AMA underscores that it “remains committed to guiding the ethical, safe and effective integration of AI into healthcare, ensuring that all regulatory efforts prioritize the needs and safety of patients and physicians. The approach to AI oversight and regulation must ensure safety and performance above all else, and must not be sacrificed for the sake of speed to market.”
- That last clause may be a purposeful sideswipe against President Trump’s repeated characterizations of AI development as a “race”—mainly against China—that the U.S. must “win” at practically all costs.
- Dive deeper: Read the White House’s AI Action Plan and the AMA’s full AI policy paper (released last fall).
- In Illinois, mental health therapists can use AI for pretty much everything except directly counseling patients—or else. Gov. JB Pritzker signed legislation sealing that deal Aug. 4. The Wellness and Oversight for Psychological Resources Act, which passed unanimously in both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly now bans licensed behavioral-health professionals from using the technology to provide therapy or lead therapeutic decision-making. At the same time, it allows the use of AI for “supplementary support” services. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which pushed for the legislation, says the law will “protect patients from unregulated and unqualified AI products” while also “protecting the jobs of Illinois’ thousands of qualified behavioral health providers.” The department, known as IDFPR, will be watching to make sure the law also guards “vulnerable children amid rising concerns over AI chatbot use in youth mental-health services.”
- The department’s head is unabashedly delighted with the development. “The people of Illinois deserve quality healthcare from real, qualified professionals and not computer programs that pull information from all corners of the internet to generate responses that harm patients,” says IDFPR Secretary Mario Treto Jr. “This legislation stands as our commitment to safeguarding the wellbeing of our residents by ensuring that mental health services are delivered by trained experts who prioritize patient care above all else.”
- When suspected violations are reported, IDFPR will investigate—and can slap confirmed offenders with fines up of to $10,000, payable to IDFPR.
- The Mayo Clinic pioneered the use of standardized patient records in the early 1900s. Today it’s looking to encore the major leap forward with healthcare AI. AI watchers have sensed the acclaimed institution’s ambitions ever since it launched Mayo Clinic Platform and its clinical data-analytics sidecar in 2020. But until now it kept its ambitions quite quiet. “We have always prided ourselves on being the No. 1 organization. That’s what we want to be,” Mayo Chief AI Implementation Officer Micky Tripathi, PhD, tells Minnesota Star Tribune, which can be forgiven for cheering on a fellow pillar of the North Star State. If Tripathi’s name rings a bell, it’s because Mayo scooped him up not long after he left his job as the HHS’s top technology official and acting chief AI officer. The newspaper also notes Mayo’s recent launch of healthcare’s first Nvidia-based supercomputing cluster and other firsts. “With nearly 100 AI algorithms in use and hundreds more in development,” the Star Tribune reports, “experts say Mayo likely has the broadest set of such tools of any healthcare institution.”
- AI doesn’t just save time—it saves lives. Umair Shah, MD, MPH, drives home the point in a roundtable podcast hosted by Microsoft Aug. 7. Shah is a former head of the Washington State Department of Health who’s now CEO of a healthcare advisory firm. Also airing out some noteworthy views in a recording of the broadcast is Gianrico Farrugia, MD, president and CEO of Mayo Clinic. “[W]e are at a point now where I believe that, for some medical conditions, it is not right to not use AI to help treat [patients],” Farrugia says. The hour-and-a-quarter discussion is led by Peter Lee, PhD, president and CEO of Microsoft Research.
- Researchers in Brazil have uncovered generally positive attitudes toward AI among frontline healthcare workers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, in digging out the findings, the team also discovered “recurring cultural and linguistic barriers” as well as ethical concerns. “This is a unique study analyzing data from the first applications of generative AI in health in LMICs,” the authors state in a scientific paper published by NPJ Health Systems. “These findings offer early insights into generative AI implementation in LMIC healthcare settings and highlight both its transformative potential and the need for careful policy and contextual adaptation.” The study is available in full for free.
- Also worthwhile:
- From AIin.Healthcare’s sibling news outlets:
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| | | The ambient AI playbook: Lessons from two leading health systems At the recent CompassionIT Summit, leaders from Akron Children’s Hospital and Denver Health shared powerful lessons from rolling out ambient documentation to over 1,500 clinicians. Their biggest takeaway? Stories, not stats, drive adoption. Whether it was a heartfelt testimonial that swayed an entire department or a 60-second Nabla demo that eliminated training anxiety, the common thread was simplicity, authenticity, and clinician-centered design. Read more about the way these health systems are navigating ambient AI implementation: https://dhinsights.org/news/the-ambient-ai-playbook-lessons-from-two-leading-health-systems |
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| | | If humanistic medicine is to endure the slow-motion AI tsunami flooding the healthcare landscape, humans will have to see those two forces—humanistic medicine and healthcare AI—not as oppositional to each other but as potentially synergistic. And if that thought is overly abstract to apply to any particular problem, allow the authors of the notion to expound on it in their own words. “By prioritizing human-centered design and ensuring that AI tools are seen as complements to, rather than substitutes for, human empathy and judgment, we can foster a future where technology enhances, rather than diminishes, the compassionate core of medicine,” write Dr. Isabella Moretti of the University of Milan and Dr. Samuel J. Clarke of King’s College London. “The goal should be to cultivate a healthcare system where technological prowess and humanistic values mutually reinforce each other, leading to genuinely better and more compassionate care for all.” Moretti and Clarke base their position on a systematic review of scientific literature touching on both AI and humanistic medicine. International Research Journal of Medical Sciences and Health Care published their paper online Aug. 1. Here are four excerpts from the discussion section. 1. Rather than replacing human interaction, AI could become an invaluable assistant, enabling a more profound and comprehensive patient-centered approach. However, realizing this symbiotic relationship requires conscious effort to mitigate the significant apprehensions expressed by patients. ‘The fear of depersonalization, reduced human connection and a mechanistic approach to care are legitimate concerns that must be addressed through transparent communication, patient education and the purposeful design of AI tools.’
2. Trust—a cornerstone of the patient-provider relationship—is not easily built or maintained when an opaque algorithm dictates aspects of care. Healthcare systems must actively ensure that AI tools are presented as assistive technologies that support human decision-making rather than autonomous entities that dictate it. ‘This involves clearly articulating the role of AI, explaining its limitations and emphasizing the continued irreplaceable role of the human clinician in providing compassion and individualized understanding.’
3. The pervasive issue of bias in data-driven AI systems poses a substantial ethical dilemma. If AI algorithms are trained on datasets that reflect existing societal biases or health disparities, they risk perpetuating or even amplifying these inequities, leading to discriminatory outcomes in patient care. Addressing this risk requires proactive strategies such as diversifying training datasets, implementing robust bias detection and mitigation techniques, and ensuring multidisciplinary teams are involved in the development and deployment of medical AI. ‘Ethical frameworks for accountability, transparency and patient autonomy are not merely academic exercises but essential prerequisites for the responsible integration of AI into humanistic medical practice.’
4. The future of humanistic medicine in an AI-driven era hinges on a delicate balance. AI should be viewed not as a replacement for human judgment and empathy but as a powerful amplification tool. It can provide clinicians with superior information and greater efficiency, allowing them to dedicate more cognitive and emotional resources to the human aspects of care. ‘This demands a proactive, ethical and patient-centered approach to AI development and deployment, ensuring that technological progress genuinely serves to enhance the humanity of medicine.’
The paper is available in full for free. (Click the PDF button.) - In other research news:
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