Inside the first U.S. medical school incorporating AI into its program
Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming a part of our daily lives, whether in the office or the classroom, and one medical school is fully embracing the technology.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City has become the first in the nation to incorporate AI into its doctor training program, granting access to OpenAI's ChatGPT Edu to all of its M.D. and graduate students. Faris Gulamali is among the school's future doctors taking full advantage of the AI tool.
Gulamali said he uses ChatGPT to help him prep for surgeries and to improve his bedside manner when explaining complex diagnoses to patients.
When asked whether using AI shortened the time it would've taken Gulamali had he not used the tool, which is designed to help medical students as they face the rigorous demands required of their education, he said: "It really helped at least reframe the explanation."
The use of AI in sensitive fields such as medicine has brought up concerns of privacy violations, and OpenAI said it is collaborating with universities and medical schools like Mount Sinai to ensure robust safeguards are in place to protect students and patients.
ChatGPT Edu is built to be fully compliant with HIPAA, the federal law restricting the release of medical information, according to OpenAI Vice President and General Manager of Education Leah Belsky.
"I think in medicine, and in health in particular, it's essential that students learn how to use AI and how to use it safely," she told CBS News. "It helps them to learn faster. It helps them to discover new areas of knowledge. It helps them to explore more deeply. What we're really focused on is making sure that there is equitable access to AI."
Belsky equated the impact of AI in the 21st century workplace to that of email and internet access in the 1990s.
For another Ph.D student at Mount Sinai, the AI tool serves as technical support in complex research projects.
"It gives me a pseudo-clinician-style mentor who I can ask questions to at any time of day, as well as a pseudo-software engineering collaborator with whom I can debug problems that I'm having," Vivek Kanpa told CBS News.
It's not only the students who say AI is changing the medical field. Dr. Benjamin Glicksberg, an associate professor at Icahn School of Medicine, called it the most remarkable innovation he ever encountered.
"It's changed everything," Dr. Glicksberg said. "I think it's changed how I interact with students. It's changed how I mentor and even try to innovate myself."
The professor also said AI tools can be a real time saver, allowing him to be more available to students like Kanpa, who says people should grow with the technology rather than fear it.
"Growing with it as opposed to fearing this thing and holding it in this scary sense of it's going to replace us, I think is really instrumental," Kanpa said.
Tom Hanson is a national investigative correspondent for CBS News and Stations. His in-depth reports air across all platforms and programs. He is a member of CBS News and Stations Medical, Health, and Wellness Unit.
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