Biomedical AI: Its Roots, Evolution, and Early Days at Stanford

Thursday, February 4, 2021, 2:30-3:50pm, virtual access only

Edward H. (Ted) Shortliffe, MD, PhD

Chair Emeritus and Adjunct Professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University
President and CEO Emeritus, American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA)
Senior Executive Consultant, IBM Watson Health
Former Professor of Medicine and Computer Science, Stanford University (1979-2000)
Founding Director, Biomedical Informatics Training Program @ Stanford

Seminar Title: Biomedical AI: Its Roots, Evolution, and Early Days at Stanford

Abstract: Five decades have passed in the evolution of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (AIM), a field that has evolved substantially while tracking the corresponding changes in computer science, hardware technology, communications, and biomedicine. Emerging from medical schools and computer science departments in its early years, the AIM field is now more visible and influential than ever before, paralleling the enthusiasm and accomplishments of AI more generally. This talk will briefly summarize some of AIM history, providing an update on the status of the field as we enter our second half-century. My remarks on this subject will emphasize the role that Stanford played in the emergence of the field. They will also offer the perspective of an informatics journal editor-in-chief who has seen many state-of-the-art AIM papers and thereby recognizes the tension between applying existing methods to new problems and developing new science that advances the field in a generalizable way. In addition, the inherent complexity of medicine and of clinical care necessitates that we address not only decision-making performance but also issues of usability, workflow, transparency, safety, and the pursuit of persuasive results from formal clinical trials. These requirements contribute to an ongoing investigative agenda that means fundamental AIM research will continue to be crucial and will define our accomplishments in the decades ahead.