Weill Cornell Medicine has announced the launch of its new AI to Advance Medicine initiative, an enterprise-wide project designed to help manage and optimize a fast-expanding set of artificial intelligence efforts.
WHY IT MATTERS
The program, based around an ongoing lecture series and some targeted grants for tools and technologies, is designed to help build the knowledge base – and put in place infrastructure and services – to support the safe and effective use of artificial intelligence among Weill Cornell faculty, staff and students.
In announcing the initiative, Vinay Varughese, chief information officer at Weill Cornell, noted that many people are still skeptical about AI's potential because they're unsure how to use it effectively.
The new project is meant to "teach people when they can trust AI and when they should be appropriately skeptical," said Varughese in a statement.
The effort will highlight new Weill Cornell AI initiatives that are helping improve care for patients, educate medical students and advance biomedical research.
A bimonthly Dean's Lecture Series, for instance, will offer faculty and trainees the chance to learn and share ideas about the technology and align their efforts as they gain AI literacy.
The first of the series, "Creating an AI-Enabled Learning Health System: Now It's Personal," will be delivered by Dr. Peter J. Embi, professor of biomedical informatics and medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, on Feb. 23.
Meanwhile, the initiative's grant program offers funding for researchers who might want to pursue AI-driven research but are in need of seed funding or technical support.
"AI has a cost – servers, cloud resources, expertise – and that's what the grant can help provide," said Varughese.
THE LARGER TREND
The program is designed around Weill Cornell's recent CARE strategic plan – clinical, AI, research and education – which informs its approach to data science across the enterprise.
The health system is an IT innovation leader, of course, advancing precision medicine decision support, virtual care and more.
The project also builds on Cornell University's broader effort to advance AI leadership and education while it expands and assesses its use and application across the university.
ON THE RECORD
"We are thinking about AI in medicine in a holistic way," said Dr. Fei Wang, associate dean for AI and data science at Weill Cornell Medicine, in a statement. "This is not about a single department or a single group, but about collective institutional effort and momentum."
"AI can be overhyped, but its capabilities are increasing at an exponential pace," added Varughese. "We need a unified strategy that will collectively align and drive the AI efforts emerging across the institution."
Mike Miliard is executive editor of Healthcare IT News
Email the writer: mmiliard@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.
