Mount Sinai Health System has announced that all medical and graduate students as well as faculty and staff at its Icahn School of Medicine will have access to OpenAI’s ChatGPT private and secure educational platform.
WHY IT MATTERS
Use of the ChatGPT Edu platform is intended to complement evidence-based practices and help provide expert guidance for patient-centered care, not as a replacement for medical care or to make clinical decisions, Mount Sinai said in the announcement.
The platform could help its medical school students and researchers build AI judgment and skills.
Mount Sinai said initially it will roll out platform access to medical students and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences students. Over time, the medical school will expand access to a variety of cohorts.
"In the next several months, we will be focusing on evaluating the student experience and how the tool supports curricular success," Paul Lawrence, the Icahn School's dean for scholarly and research technologies, said in the statement.
According to the health system, OpenAI's genAI education platform has built-in safeguards to ensure compliance.
"Every student today, regardless of discipline, needs to know how to use AI effectively before entering an increasingly AI-powered workforce," Leah Belsky, OpenAI's vice president and general manager of education, said in the statement.
"In medical schools, teaching students how to use AI responsibly is even more critical."
Faculty members also can explore its use for curriculum development, scholarly work and more, the health system said.
Helping them all develop the ethical grounding they will need in a future where "AI will increasingly intersect with medicine" is a duty, noted Dr. David Thomas, the Icahn School's dean for medical education.
"We believe it’s our responsibility not just to adopt emerging technologies, but to do so with care, purpose and a strong commitment to equity and academic integrity," he said.
THE LARGER TREND
Aiming to foster collaboration in the development and application of AI to enhance healthcare delivery, Mount Sinai previously opened a 65,000-square-foot Center for AI and Human Health research facility and in March launched a separate center to further AI-enabled pediatrics.
Preparing healthcare professionals to use genAI in their daily work is a logical step, and some health systems are training or planning to train staff in how to use generative AI. For example, to nurture an AI-ready workforce, Peoria, Illinois-based OSF Healthcare provided mandatory education for all 24,000 employees across its 16 hospitals.
"The OSF vision is to harness the power of [genAI] to advance the exploration, use and adoption to optimize healthcare delivery, empower healthcare professionals and improve patient experiences across our health system," Melissa Knuth, the health system's vice president of planning, told Healthcare IT News in August.
ON THE RECORD
"With robust safeguards in place – including full HIPAA compliance and integrated protections to support safe and appropriate use – our deployment of ChatGPT Edu gives our students the opportunity to engage critically with generative AI," Thomas said in a statement.
“Students aren’t using AI to make medical decisions, but to sharpen their thinking, challenge their assumptions and become more confident, critical thinkers," added Dr. Dennis Charney, the Icahn School's Anne and Joel Mount Sinai Health System's president for Academic Affairs. "Tools like this can enhance how students learn and problem-solve, but they will never replace human instincts and relationships at the heart of medicine."
Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.
