AI Tech should Augment Physician Decision-Making, not Replace It

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in clinical health care has the potential to transform health care delivery but it should not replace physician decision-making, says the American College of Physicians (ACP) in a new policy paper. "Artificial Intelligence in the Provision of Health Care," published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, offers recommendations on the ethical, scientific, and clinical components of AI use, and says that AI tools and systems should enhance human intelligence, not supplant it.

"AI has the potential to aid in solving some of the issues currently plaguing the health care industry, such as clinician shortages, burnout, and administrative burdens," said Isaac O. Opole, MBChB, PhD, MACP, president, ACP. "However, to ensure that we are able to realize the most benefit, with the fewest harms to patients, we need to fully understand the implications of the technology that we are implementing."

To navigate the risks and ensure best practices, ACP recommends that AI-enabled technology should be limited to a supportive role in clinical decision-making. ACP notes that when being used for clinical decision-making, the technology would more appropriately be called "augmented" intelligence, since the tools should ideally be used to assist clinicians, not replace them. The tools must be developed, tested, and used transparently, while prioritizing privacy, clinical safety, and effectiveness. The use of technology should actively work to reduce, not exacerbate, disparities, ensuring a fair and just health care system. ACP recommends that to ensure accountability and oversight of AI-enabled medical tools, there should be a coordinated federal strategy involving oversight of AI by governmental and non-governmental regulatory entities. The tools should be designed to reduce physician and other clinician burdens in support of patient care, while guided by unwavering principles of medical ethics.

Additionally, to ensure that AI tools are administered safely, ACP advises that training on AI in medicine be provided at all levels of medical education. Physicians must be able to both use the technology and remain able to make appropriate clinical decisions independently, in the case that AI decision support becomes unavailable. Lastly, efforts to quantify the environmental impacts of AI must continue and mitigation of those impacts should be considered.

"AI has already made an impact in the medical community, and ACP is excited about what it means for the future of health care," remarked Dr. Opole. "There is so much potential to use this revolutionary technology to improve clinical practices and promote health equity. As we incorporate AI into medical practice, it is essential to maintain an awareness of the clinical and ethical implications of AI technology and its impacts on patient well-being."

Daneshvar N, Pandita D, Erickson S, Sulmasy LS, DeCamp M; ACP Medical Informatics Committee and the Ethics, Professionalism and Human Rights Committee.
Artificial Intelligence in the Provision of Health Care: An American College of Physicians Policy Position Paper.
Ann Intern Med. 2024 Jun 4. doi: 10.7326/M24-0146

Most Popular Now

Philips Foundation 2024 Annual Report: E…

Marking its tenth anniversary, Philips Foundation released its 2024 Annual Report, highlighting a year in which the Philips Foundation helped provide access to quality healthcare for 46.5 million people around...

New AI Transforms Radiology with Speed, …

A first-of-its-kind generative AI system, developed in-house at Northwestern Medicine, is revolutionizing radiology - boosting productivity, identifying life-threatening conditions in milliseconds and offering a breakthrough solution to the global radiologist...

Scientists Argue for More FDA Oversight …

An agile, transparent, and ethics-driven oversight system is needed for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to balance innovation with patient safety when it comes to artificial intelligence-driven medical...

New Research Finds Specific Learning Str…

If data used to train artificial intelligence models for medical applications, such as hospitals across the Greater Toronto Area, differs from the real-world data, it could lead to patient harm...

Giving Doctors an AI-Powered Head Start …

Detection of melanoma and a range of other skin diseases will be faster and more accurate with a new artificial intelligence (AI) powered tool that analyses multiple imaging types simultaneously...

AI Agents for Oncology

Clinical decision-making in oncology is challenging and requires the analysis of various data types - from medical imaging and genetic information to patient records and treatment guidelines. To effectively support...

Patients say "Yes..ish" to the…

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to be integrated in healthcare, a new multinational study involving Aarhus University sheds light on how dental patients really feel about its growing role in...

Brains vs. Bytes: Study Compares Diagnos…

A University of Maine study compared how well artificial intelligence (AI) models and human clinicians handled complex or sensitive medical cases. The study published in the Journal of Health Organization...

'AI Scientist' Suggests Combin…

An 'AI scientist', working in collaboration with human scientists, has found that combinations of cheap and safe drugs - used to treat conditions such as high cholesterol and alcohol dependence...

Start-ups in the Spotlight at MEDICA 202…

17 - 20 November 2025, Düsseldorf, Germany. MEDICA, the leading international trade fair and platform for healthcare innovations, will once again confirm its position as the world's number one hotspot for...