Artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly evolving, broadly disruptive force that can and should be harnessed to optimize the education and training of health professionals as well as health and health care for everyone. While the transition to AI-assisted education is already well underway in our health professions schools—for example, many have simulation labs where their learners practice interacting with virtual patients, for example—the challenge has taken on more urgency as “generative” AI innovations—those that can “learn” from inputs to generate new outputs—have become widely available. While there are multiple administrative uses of AI in managing medical education, this conference will focus on those domains that directly relate to the experience and outcomes of learners and the efficiency of teaching and assessment
To further our understanding of what responsible, effective, and ethical use of AI in medical education will look like in the immediate future, the Macy Foundation is hosting a conference as well as launching a new RFA for two year grants focusing on this topic.
AI in Medical Education Conference
The conference, Artificial Intelligence and Medical Education, will be held in November 2024. It will engage 50+ invited participants—including AI industry experts; AI in medical education innovators; leaders of academic medical centers, health systems, and relevant associations; health professions faculty and learners; and others—in intensive discussions designed to produce consensus recommendations for the field.
AI in Medical Education Request for Applications
On December 1, the Macy Foundation will begin accepting letters of intent for “Artificial Intelligence in Medical Education: A Grants Program to Advance Innovation in Medical Education.” Through this effort, we will fund three demonstration projects, each receiving up to $200K over two years. The projects chosen for funding will describe, implement, and evaluate innovative strategies to integrate AI into medical education and prepare current and future physicians on the ethical use of AI to improve patient care. Additional details about the RFA, including a preview of the application, are available on our website.
To learn more about the new AI in Medical Education grants program, we invite you to join us for an informational webinar on Tuesday, December 10, 2024 at 12:00 noon EST.
More Resources
Additional conference-related products will include a Macy-commissioned report, Innovations Report on Artificial Intelligence and Medical Education, and a special issue of Academic Medicine. The Innovations Report, intended to help focus the conference discussion, is being authored by Christy Boscardin, PhD, professor, and Brian Gin, MD, PhD, associate professor, at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine. The report will be published as part of a special issue of Academic Medicine in September 2025 (and made available online several months earlier). The special issue will also include the conference proceedings and consensus recommendations.