JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Artificial intelligence (AI) is on course to become a mainstay in the patient's room, physicians office and the surgical suite. Current advancements in healthcare technology put future physicians in an insufficiently equipped position and even possible inferiority to machines. Physicians will be regularly tasked with clinical decision making with the assistance of AI driven predictions. Present-day physicians are not trained to incorporate the suggestions of statistical predictions on a regular basis nor are they knowledgeable in an ethical approach to incorporating AI in their distribution of care. Medical schools do not currently incorporate AI in the curriculum due to the lack of faculty expertise or knowledge on the matter, the lack of evidence in students desire to learn about AI, complacency with an already rigorous curriculum or lack of guidance on AI in medical education from medical education governing bodies. Medical schools should incorporate AI in the curriculum as a longitudinal thread in current subjects. Current students should have an understanding in the breadth of AI tools, the framework of engineering and designing AI solutions to clinical issues and acquiring knowledge about data appropriate to AI innovations. Study cases in the curriculum should include an AI recommendation that may present critical decision making challenges. Finally, the ethical implications of AI in medicine must be at the forefront of any comprehensive medical education.