From personalized and targeted cancer treatments to more face time with your physician, aspirations for AI in medicine are nothing short of transformative. A widely circulated story about a mother who used ChatGPT to correctly diagnose her son after seeing 17 doctors in a three-year span is inspiring hope that AI can advance diagnostics.
And while artificial intelligence is already hard at work across the healthcare landscape, the broader conversations about AI are still in their early stages. Some have equated AI in 2024 to the internet going mainstream in the 1990s. Others have said we are one minute into a 90-minute match. Analogies aside, most of us have heard of AI and realize that it will forever alter our future, but the precise implementations and implications are still largely unknown. As the Dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine, Dr. Lloyd Minor, said at Stanford Medicine’s inaugural AI event in May, “The internet brought us access to information; generative AI will bring us access to knowledge.”
Just as important as the algorithms and models are the ethical considerations of AI, particularly when it comes to healthcare. Privacy, security, data bias and health equity concerns, along with regulatory frameworks, are all critical components of the responsible use and adoption of AI in medicine.
These critical questions have been the foremost topic at healthcare conferences and convenings across the US During the past year, Brunswick Group advisors have been a part of these conversations, including with leading healthcare providers, academic institutions, technology companies and journalists. The subject of AI and healthcare raises unique concerns around topics like data and the role of human connection in the age of rapidly advancing technology, as organizations around the globe grapple with how to leverage the benefits of AI while mitigating the risks.
Below are four key takeaways for businesses thinking about the intersection of AI and health:
- Think about the user first
- Transparency is essential
- Data accuracy is critical, but so is speed
- Liability needs to be delineated
For an in-depth exploration of each key takeaway and to understand how they can impact your approach to healthcare technology, read the full article here.
Michael Fitzpatrick
Partner, Washington, DC
Chelsea Magnant
Director, Washington, DC
Jennifer Sukawaty
Director, San Francisco
Kate Larsen
Associate, San Francisco