February 9, 2024

WSMA Forms New AI Work Group

During the 2023 WSMA Annual Meeting of the House of Delegates, the House adopted Resolution B-3 - Ensuring Nondiscriminatory Use of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, introduced by Danny Low, MD, and Therese Franco, MD (resolution text below). The resolution, coupled with the emerging need for expert perspectives on emerging AI issues, prompted the WSMA to create an artificial intelligence work group-members of which were appointed this month.

At its January meeting, the WSMA board of trustees appointed the following members to serve on the new AI work group:

• John Scott, MD, M.Sc, infectious disease, UW Medicine; WSMA board of trustees member
• Teresa Girolami, MD, internal medicine, Bel-Red Internal Medicine; AMA alternate delegate
• Áine Kelly Yore, MD, emergency medicine; North Sound Emergency Medicine, WSMA board of trustees member
• Colin Fields, MD, family medicine; Washington Permanente Medical Group; AMA alternate delegate
• Rich Furlong, MD, internal medicine, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health; Virginia Mason CME committee member

The work group will review and update WSMA's existing principles on artificial intelligence (established by a previous work group) and provide expert review and perspective on AI-related issues considered by the Legislature or through other means.

Resolution B-3 - Ensuring Nondiscriminatory Use of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (passed by the 2023 House of Delegates)

RESOLVED, that the WSMA adopt a position on the use of artificial intelligence in medicine, stating that any AI that is patient-facing should be transparent to patients so that they know an automated system is being used (New HOD Policy), and BE IT FURTHER

RESOLVED, that the WSMA support the development of physician-guided guidelines defining "patient-facing AI" that will consider direct patient interactions, AI's role in information retrieval and interpretation, and its influence on decision-making to strike a balance between transparency to patients and the feasibility and necessity of Attachment III-B disclosing AI's involvement when physicians remain the final decision-makers, reviewers, or editors of the information provided to patients (New HOD Policy), and BE IT FURTHER

RESOLVED, that the WSMA call for efforts to prevent discrimination by algorithms in patient-facing AI systems to ensure that individuals do not face bias or unequal treatment, fostering fairness and inclusivity in health care AI applications (Directive to Take Action), and BE IT FURTHER

RESOLVED, that the WSMA support efforts to align AI systems with the dynamic medical field, fostering collaboration and ongoing updates for effective health care AI integration (New HOD Policy), and BE IT FURTHER

RESOLVED, that the WSMA support requiring patient-facing AI systems to be interpretable to the extent possible by human coders and users to ensure that the system operates within reasonable parameters and aligns with the intended design while avoiding obvious failures, misdiagnoses, or adverse consequences due to algorithmic decision-making under uncertainty and helps avoid malalignment (New HOD Policy), and BE IT FURTHER

RESOLVED, that the WSMA encourage physicians to actively engage in a continuous feedback loop with AI systems to improve accuracy, learn from and correct errors, and continuously enhance the performance of patient-facing AI because physicians' feedback will be instrumental in addressing errors and optimizing AI utilization in health care settings. (New HOD Policy)