Health Data, Workforce Development, Privacy and Security, Patient Resources
Healthcare Leaders Share Their Views on Artificial Intelligence
The Journal of AHIMA recently surveyed healthcare industry leaders nationwide on the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare. Respondents addressed issues such as AI prescribing, oversight and accountability, and reducing administrative burdens. Here are their responses:
“Physicians have spent years developing trust in workflows that leverage other providers, such as [physician assistants], [nurse practitioners], nurse specialists, call centers, and increasingly automated algorithmic support to streamline burdensome workflows. It is a natural evolution to bring LLMs and other AI tools into this mix to facilitate care and lower costs so long as guardrails are established to assure patient safety, transparency, care coordination, and an optimized experience for patients and providers. Questions regarding liability need to be addressed explicitly to gain provider buy-in.”
Hass Saad, MD, Chief Clinical Officer for Paragon at Altera Digital Health, a global health IT company
“As a physician, I’m encouraged by technologies that have the potential to expand access to care and help alleviate pressures facing today’s healthcare workforce. The promise of AI-driven prescribing is exciting, but hospitals and prescribing clinicians will want to see strong evidence around safety, accuracy and patient outcomes. Success and regulatory compliance will depend on balancing innovation with appropriate clinical oversight, and moving in this direction will require the trust of both providers and patients.”
“The idea of having unlicensed, unvetted, and irresponsible AI writing prescriptions is a terrible idea. In other countries, a pharmacist can write prescriptions for patients for a host of mild ailments, as well as suggest over-the-counter medications for meds that often require a prescription here. If we were to adopt a similar model and have mild ailments addressed by a pharmacist, we could save physicians tremendous amounts of time and effort. If we have independent AI physicians, who would be responsible for the potential errors, who would carry the medical license, and who be liable for the medical mistakes that inevitably will happen?”
Niki Panich, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Penguin Ai, a healthcare AI company that addresses administrative burdens
“AI that reduces diagnostic lag and lifts administrative burden has strong evidence behind it. The harder questions, around liability, informed consent, and what physician oversight looks like at scale will take time to work through.”
"If we're going to trust AI to prescribe, we need to hold it to a higher standard than we hold human physicians. That means building cost transparency and benefit visibility into the model from day one, not as an afterthought."
David Feldman, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Dimer Health, a clinician-led transitional care medicine company
“Healthcare doesn’t have a technology problem. It has an accountability problem. AI can help identify risks, answer questions, and scale support in ways we’ve never been able to before. But when a patient’s condition changes, someone still needs to own the clinical decision-making. The future isn’t AI versus clinicians. It’s AI enabling clinicians to deliver more responsive, continuous care than was previously possible.”
“Patients aren’t waiting for their health system to catch up. They’re already asking AI what their symptoms mean, and that’s not going to stop. So, the real question is whether health systems show up in that moment or find out about it later. Prescribing is care. It needs context, accountability, and someone who knows the patient’s history. What AI can do really well is be there when someone has a question at 11 p.m., help them understand what they may be dealing with, and get them to the right place. That’s a better use of the technology than using an AI doctor and calling it access.”
Damon Adams is content production editor for AHIMA.