Authors' Night - Intelligent Systems in Medicine and Health: The Role of AI

Dr. Vimla L. Patel and Dr. Edward H. Shortliffe will discuss their unique introductory textbook, Intelligent Systems in Medicine and Health: The Role of AI (Springer Nature, Sept. 2022), co-edited with Dr. Trevor A. Cohen.

The book offers a comprehensive introduction that takes stock of the current state of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (AIM), places developments in their historical context, and identifies factors that may help or hinder their ability to improve patient care, all from a cognitive perspective. The discussion will address the strengths and limitations of these emerging technologies, emphasizing how they relate to the intelligent systems that preceded them, to the intelligence of human decision makers in medicine and health care, and to the needs and expectations of those who use the resulting tools and systems. This sets the stage for an informed discussion of the potential of such technology to enhance patient care, the obstacles that must be overcome for this to take place, and the ways in which emerging, and as-yet-undeveloped technologies may transform the practice of health care.

About the Presenters

Vimla Patel, PhD, DSc, FACMI, FRSC, is a Senior Research Scientist in Cognitive Studies in Medicine and Public Health at The New York Academy of Medicine. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Trained as a cognitive and educational psychologist, she has expertise in using cognitive methods to capture and analyze data for clinical decision-making, explore ways to augment human intelligence for design of safer health information technology. Dr. Patel is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Social Sciences), the American College of Medical Informatics, and the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics. She was awarded the 2021 William W. Stead Award for Thought Leadership in Informatics and edits the Springer book series in Cognitive Informatics in Biomedicine and Healthcare.

Edward (Ted) Shortliffe, MD, PhD, MACP, FACMI, FAIMBE, FIAHSI, is Chair Emeritus and Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. He has spearheaded the formation and evolution of graduate degree programs in biomedical informatics at Stanford, Columbia, and Arizona State Universities. Both a PhD computer scientist and a physician who has practiced internal medicine, Dr. Shortliffe is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine; an elected fellow of The New York Academy of Medicine, the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI), and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence; and a Master of the American College of Physicians. He received the Association of Computing Machinery’s Grace Murray Hopper Award in 1976 and ACMI’s Morris F. Collen Award in 2006.