Across all industries, artificial intelligence (AI) has changed the way people work, and health care is no exception. But in health care, the stakes of getting it wrong are higher, making education and clinician leadership essential as the technology moves further into practice. 

Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, Chairman of the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, and Professor of Medicine, Lerner College of Medicine Cancer Institute at Cleveland Clinic, spoke after Cleveland Clinic’s A.I. Summit for Healthcare Professionals about the growing interest in learning about AI and its potential impact on the health-care industry. He reflected on the field’s readiness for AI, why health-care leaders bear responsibility for educating their caregivers, and how the technology might be directed toward one of medicine's most persistent challenges: delivering accessible, affordable care at scale.

Edited transcript

We had a hugely successful second AI health-care conference in Cleveland. I really thank the engaging participation by more than 1,000 caregivers from across 33 different states and seven different countries. That shows clearly the huge appetite for information and the strong desire for learning about AI, because AI is going to transform health care. And as health-care leaders, we strongly believe it's our responsibility to continue to educate our caregivers on AI.

The second thing is, to be at the table to shape the conversation about the impact of AI, we need to be aware of the impact of AI, and we need to understand the tools we can use to improve patient care. Because as clinicians, we clearly understand, the main focus of health care should be patients at the center.

I'm really optimistic about AI. In my mind, AI is a tool. It's up to us to decide how we are going to use the tool. The tool can potentially control us, but it's up to us how we make that decision and how we make the decision about who's going to control who. In the end, I think, as health-care leaders, we should make sure we use the tool to help our patients.

And another thing, I know there’s concern about if AI is going to take over our jobs, and it’s going to replace doctors. I don't think that should be a valid worry. In my mind, AI will continue to help us and augment our ability to continue to find better treatments and scale our access to more patients.

A major health-care issue is how do we continue to provide accessible and affordable care in a very scalable manner to our patients across the country. In a global sense, it's even bigger. So I'm really hoping that AI will be able to help us provide affordable care to more patients. So I don't think we need to worry about losing jobs. I really think this is going to be a tool for us to help more patients and find better treatments and improve our patients’ lives.

*Transcript edited for clarity.