Artificial Intelligence in Health Care - The Hope, the Hype, the Promise, the Peril

Report Abstract

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool for better health care offers unprecedented opportunities to improve patient and clinical team outcomes, reduce costs, and impact population health. Examples include but are not limited to automation; providing patient, “fRamily” (friends and family unpaid caregivers), and health care professionals’ information synthesis; and recommendations and visualization of information for shared decision making.

While there have been a number of promising examples of AI applications in health care, we believe it is imperative to proceed with caution, else we may end up with user disillusionment and another AI winter, and/or further exacerbate existing health and technology driven disparities. The National Academy of Medicine’s Special Publication: Artificial Intelligence in Health Care: The Hope, The Hype, The Promise, The Peril synthesizes current knowledge to offer a reference document for relevant health care stakeholders such as: AI model developers, clinical implementers, clinicians and patients, regulators, and policy makers, to name a few. It outlines the current and near-term AI solutions; highlights the challenges, limitations, and best practices for AI development, adoption, and maintenance; offers an overview of the legal and regulatory landscape for AI tools designed for health care application; prioritizes the need for equity, inclusion, and a human rights lens for this work; and outlines key considerations for moving forward.