Developing an Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Health Care Practice: Rewiring Health Care Professions for Better Care

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to impact almost every aspect of health care, from detection to prediction and prevention. The adoption of new technologies in health care, however, lags far behind the emergence of new technologies. Health care professionals and organizations must be prepared to change and evolve to adopt these new technologies. A basic understanding of emerging AI technologies will be essential for all health care professionals. These technologies include expert systems, robotic process automation, natural language processing, machine learning, and deep learning. Health care professionals and organizations must build their capacity and capabilities to understand and appropriately adopt these technologies. This understanding starts with basic AI literacy, including data governance principles, basic statistics, data visualization, and the impact on clinical processes. Health care professionals and organizations will need to overcome several challenges and tackle core structural issues, such as access to data and the readiness of algorithms for clinical practice. However, health care professionals have an opportunity to shape the way that AI will be used and the outcomes that will be achieved. There is an urgent and emerging need for education and training so that appropriate technologies can be rapidly adopted, resulting in a healthier world for our patients and our communities.

Keywords: AI literacy; AI-enabled health professions education; Artificial intelligence; digital healthcare; professional development.