Boss wants to implement AI in healthcare. Thoughts?
Context: I work in healthcare, I work in an admin support role for the management team of the department.
My workplace has some policies around using digital and AI tools already, but I'm concerned they aren't thorough enough at the moment and don't encompass all of the risks and real-world uses of the tools.
Last week the head of department asked me to set up a meeting with various people in the department to discuss AI and digital tools. I was curious so asked him about it. He said he wants to try and implement more ai and digital tools around the department to hopefully streamline things.
My concerns:
I'm generally very wary of the increasing use of ai, especially generative stuff. I'm concerned about the environmental impacts, but also the fact that it can still be very flawed. Furthermore I fear the people who will be using it don't fully understand the risks and consequences of using it. I think if people received proper training and understood everything in depth, I'd be more comfortable with these things being used on a wider scale.
my role is admin support. There are a lot of us in the department (and wider workforce). I'm concerned about my (and colleagues) futures if everyone starts outsourcing their admin tasks to ai, where does that leave us?
possibly my most important concern is that we're talking about using ai in healthcare. At the moment it might just be to minute meetings, but it could go in the direction of summarising medical records, medical appointments, reporting on diagnostic tests. This scares me because ai is not perfect and can make mistakes. And I don't like the idea of leaving important healthcare related tasks up to ai. I know that there should still be human supervision on these tasks, at least that's what policy states. But realistically, I fear lots of people (especially the overworked & understaffed people) might not supervise it, might just let it take over the task entirely. Which leaves the door open for drastic mistakes.
In an ideal world, everyone would receive adequate training in ai use, and would understand how to use it carefully and in an informed way. But I fear that won't actually happen, and I'm scared about the consequences.
Anyone have any previous experiences of ai tools being implemented at work or in healthcare?
Any thoughts, concerns, or plus sides I haven't considered?