This course in Spanish, accessible to all and at any pace, is aimed at health professionals in Latin American countries who may not have access to reliable information on AI.
As the artificial intelligence landscape continues to expand, medical journals and organizations like American Medical Association publish articles on how new technologies are revolutionizing healthcare.
From back-office tasks to patient care, AI is already being used to answer patient questions outside of business hours, help doctors monitor and even diagnose patients, and streamline all sorts of administrative functions like medical records and billing.
No, ChatGPT will not replace your healthcare provider anytime soon.
However, it won’t be long before AI helps perform surgeries or test new treatments to determine outcomes before they are prescribed to patients.
Ethical questions about AI
Just as important as the innovations are the ethical questions raised by AI, particularly in medicine, said Sergio Litewka, MD, MPH, director of global bioethics at the University of Miami. Institute of Bioethics and Health Policy.
Working with instructional designers in the Division of Continuing and International Education (DCIE), Dr. Litewka, associate professor in the DeWitt Daughtry Family Department of Surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, launched an online course last fall: The The Ethics of AI in Medicine.
Offered entirely in Spanish, this five-module, self-paced course is aimed at healthcare professionals in Latin America and the Caribbean who may not have access to the latest information on AI.
“There are very few courses on AI ethics in healthcare, and even fewer in Latin America,” said Dr. Litewka, who is originally from Argentina and has extensive experience in healthcare education and reform in Latin America.
The AI in Medicine course is a collaboration with the Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Los Andes in Colombia.
“The idea is to make sure that physicians are aware of the ethical considerations of these new tools and that they think about them,” Dr. Litewka added. “There’s a lot of interest and opportunity in AI. We don’t want to discourage the use of these tools. But we also don’t want people to be so excited about using the tool that they forget to consider the human element.”
Dr. Litewka has extensive experience in this field. In 2011, President Obama appointed him to the U.S. Presidential Commission on Bioethical Issues. Since then, he has worked on numerous educational programs on research ethics in Latin America and the Caribbean.
A resource for multiple disciplines
Beyond healthcare professionals, the AI Ethics in Medicine course is also aimed at students of biomedical disciplines, as well as lawyers, journalists, legislators, and others who may be interested in learning more about the topic.
“We currently have about 20 learners from Argentina, Mexico and Colombia, and we are looking to expand this program to many other countries in the region,” said Dr. Litewka.
“UM is very well-known and respected in the region,” said Dr. Litewka. “It’s part of our institute’s legacy of service. They know and trust us because of our previous work with them on research ethics.”
Working with the Office of Career AdvancementDr Litewka said the University is now able to issue a certificate to those who pass a series of tests while completing the course. Students also receive a digital badge to place on their website or LinkedIn page.
Each of the course’s five modules was evaluated by ethics experts, one a professor in the Division of Ethics in Science and Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the other a professor at the Francisco Valles Institute of Clinical Ethics at the European University of Madrid, Spain.
Exploring AI Bias
The course covers topics such as informed patient consent for the use of AI, protecting patient information, the problem of bias in many large language models like ChatGPT, and, most worryingly, “hallucinations,” when AI tools invent information that seems plausible.
The effects of such aberrations could be disastrous in a medical setting, Dr. Litewka said.
“If you go to the doctor and the doctor has one opinion and the (AI) model has another, who do you trust?” he explained. “Research shows that these models can be more accurate than doctors in some cases. But they can also make things up. That creates a lot of ethical issues.”
According to Dr. Litewka, one of the biggest challenges of the course is the rapid pace of new AI tools in medicine. Given the rapid pace of AI development, he believes that regular updates will be necessary to keep the course fresh and relevant.
This should not be a problem for instructional designers with the Institute for Digital Learning and Designwho designed and launched the course on UM’s Elevate platform.
“It was great to work with Dr. LItewka and his team to bring this course to life,” said Claudia Velasquez, the course’s lead designer. “We look forward to continuing to work with the School of Medicine on similar projects.”
April Macadangdang, deputy director of the institute, said the course provides an important opportunity for Spanish-speaking learners.
“This AI course in Spanish can greatly benefit learners in Latin America,” she added. “It promotes accessibility, improves learning outcomes, promotes career advancement, and equips professionals with the foundational knowledge of ethics around AI in healthcare. This is a great project for us and our partners in Latin America.”
Keywords: AI, artificial intelligence, bioethics, Dr. Sergio Litewka, medical education
