Considering The Policy Implications of AI and Healthcare Economics

Photo via Neha Jampala

NEHA JAMPALA: On Wednesday, March, 20, the MBA Lunch and Learn: “Artificial Intelligence: The Game-Changer in Healthcare Economics” featured Dr. Nawar M. Shara, Ph.D., chief research data scientist for the MedStar Health Research Institute. The Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy Center curates the MBA Lunch and Learn Series, which aims to facilitate connections between students and speakers on issues of business and public life. 

As the Co-Director of MedStar’s Georgetown Collaborative Center for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Research and Education (AI CoLab), Dr. Shara’s insights provide a glimpse into the future of healthcare, marked by innovation, efficiency, and inclusivity.  

Shara began the presentation by emphasizing AI’s omnipresence in daily life and its burgeoning role in healthcare, saying that AI integrates quickly and easily into daily human routines.

“Artificial intelligence is changing your world,” Shara said at the event. “You interact with it daily, whether it’s personalized advertisements or predictive texting,” she explained, highlighting the versatility and transformative potential of AI technologies.

Dr. Shara’s research, rooted in collaborative and team approaches, seeks to harness big data, predictive analytics, and AI to improve patient outcomes and healthcare efficiency, especially as AI has emerged as an increasingly powerful solution to address problems in the field.

Shara discussed the immense range of applicability in practical healthcare solutions using statistical data.  “I always see opportunities in data and statistics, the premise of statistics as a scientist to try to explain the variability that we see in nature,” Shara said,  “Every single problem in healthcare is a potential solution in AI. 

Shara said her approach opens new avenues for treatment and diagnosis while emphasizing the need for responsible and ethical AI development to ensure these technologies benefit all segments of society equally. “We are trying as best as we can to embrace this technology by ensuring that it’s developed with ethical, responsible, accountable measures,” Shara said. “So that’s why it’s taking a while.”

Furthermore, Shara highlighted her hallmark project, applying AI to sift through electronic health records (EHR) and identify patients at risk of transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy, a rare and often underdiagnosed heart condition. 

“This initiative shows the practical application of AI in diagnosing complex diseases and its further potential to enhance patient care by enabling early and accurate detection,” Dr. Shara said. 

A core aspect of her presentation also focused on the critical need for inclusivity and equity in AI research. Dr. Shara discussed her role in spearheading initiatives to engage underrepresented minorities in AI research, highlighting the importance of this endeavor for achieving health equity. She shared, “It’s part of a $100 million grant from NIH to bring about the underrepresented minorities into their organization.” 

In advocating for a future where AI transforms healthcare, policy development should not occur in isolation. Interdisciplinary teams, including ethicists, technologists, healthcare professionals, and policymakers, must collaborate to create robust policies. This approach ensures that ethical considerations are integrated from the ground up, rather than being afterthoughts, fostering AI implementations that are not only technologically advanced but also ethically sound and socially responsible.

Continually, in discussing the challenges and opportunities AI presents in healthcare, Dr. Shara touched on challenges like data bias, the necessity for robust digital and computational infrastructure, and navigating regulatory landscapes. “We are trying as best as we can to embrace this technology by ensuring that it's developed with ethical, responsible, accountable measures,” she said, highlighting the cautious optimism that guides her work.

“The rules and regulations and the policies that can process the baud rate of AI are not there yet,” Shara said.  “All this requires us to be mindful of the next generation of patients and what tools there are we have to focus on so that we can lessen the burden on our healthcare providers and improve our patient satisfaction,” she added.

Reflecting on Dr. Shara’s ideas of ethical frameworks being foundational to AI development in healthcare, it is central to acknowledge that policies should not just address the ‘how’ of AI implementation, but also the ‘why’ and ‘for whom’. Ethical frameworks should guide the development of AI technologies to ensure they enhance patient care, protect patient privacy, and ensure equitable access to healthcare advancements. These frameworks must be adaptable to the rapid evolution of AI technologies, ensuring they remain relevant and effective.

Dr. Shara concluded her talk with a forward-looking perspective on the role of AI in healthcare and the importance of collaboration across disciplines to realize the full potential of these technologies. Overall, Dr. Shara effectively showcased the transformative potential of AI in healthcare in her presentation but also laid bare the challenges that must be addressed to fully harness the benefits of AI. Her talk therefore pushes me to consider the policy implications of healthcare’s intersection with AI implementation. 

In navigating the complex terrain of AI in healthcare, I find Dr. Shara’s insights to be both a beacon and a challenge. A multidisciplinary approach to the policy development of ethical AI integration should make us further think about how policies surrounding AI should be rooted in ethical frameworks that are not static. Rather, policies evolve alongside technological advancements, ensuring they are relevant, effective, and reflective of diverse societal values. 

Additionally, echoing Dr. Shara’s call for proactive involvement of the public and patients, I believe that they should also be actively involved in any policymaking process. This inclusion is vital for ensuring that AI implementations in healthcare are not only transparent but also aligned with the needs and values of those they aim to serve. The push for global standards and continuous ethical education for AI professionals further highlights the need for a comprehensive approach that addresses the ethical and technical dimensions of AI in healthcare. While overly stringent regulations may stifle the development of potentially life-saving AI technologies, too little oversight can lead to ethical breaches and public mistrust. Thus, policymakers must navigate this delicate balance, fostering an environment where innovation thrives within a framework of ethical accountability and public safety.

Neha Jampala is a freshman studying Political Economy in the College and edits for OTR’s Campus section.  She is interested in global trade and the intersections of economic policy and healthcare equity.