Yale Medicine Magazine

Dean Nancy J. Brown offers insights into how AI will be used in advancing discovery and innovation across multiple disciplines at Yale School of Medicine.

Recent journal publications from Yale School of Medicine researchers.

Generative AI, a new approach to artificial intelligence, has the potential to reshape clinical practice, research, and education in ways that defy imagination. Yale School of Medicine, an early adopter of information technologies, has ensured that it's use of AI models adheres to the highest ethical standards while innovating in areas such as diagnostic radiology to prescreen medical images, creating 3D models to simulate effects of radiation therapy on a particular patient, and relieving administrative burden on clinicians.

Scientists at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) are exploring ways to train specialized chatbots to act like a clinician’s personal AI assistant. By reducing physicians’ heavy workload, these chatbots could revolutionize the ways in which doctors deliver care and improve patients’ experiences.

At Yale School of Medicine, AI is being integrated into various fields such as radiology, pathology, and clinical trials, promising to transform medical practices and enable earlier and more precise diagnoses and treatments. AI is also improving patient experiences with a new clinical documentation tool named Abridge, allowing clinicians to be more present with patients.

Scientists at YSM are building powerful computational models to forecast our disease risk, speed accurate diagnoses, and build more precise treatments. AI is helping researchers delve deeper into many aspects of human biology and disease, from predicting the detailed molecular structure of an immune protein when it encounters a diseased cell to modeling the human brain and how it changes in psychiatric disorders.

The ethics of implementing AI are being addressed from many different angles, with a rigorous evaluation process undertaken before new AI technologies are adopted. While AI has many potential benefits such as improving diagnostic accuracy and treatment planning, Yale is also cautious about issues such as inherent biases, data privacy, and the sustainability challenges of AI's energy consumption.

An interview with LuFlot, a chatbot developed by Yale’s Digital Ethics Center, trained on the writings of its director and founder, Luciano Floridi, PhD, MPhil, professor in the practice in the Cognitive Science Program, about guidelines medical schools should develop in response to generative AI applications.

At Yale School of Medicine, Jaideep Talwalker, MD, has incorporated training on the care for individuals with intellectual disabilities within the curriculum of Clinical Skills, a hands-on course that he leads, covering such topics as physical examinations and communication strategies to overcome.

The chair of Yale’s Department of Anesthesiology, Lisa Leffert, MD, shares insights on her approach to medicine, including, obstetric pain management, the opioid crisis, and career development for anesthesiologists.