Concerns that medical students will use AI to learn, but when it comes to diagnosis, it will be vague

Artificial intelligence (AI) is bringing many opportunities and challenges to the medical and pharmaceutical industry, especially in terms of human resource training, forcing parties to design appropriate response solutions, according to experts.

Delegates sharing at the discussion, from left to right: Mr. Jonathan Van Tam, Ms. Pham Thi My Lien, Mr. Tran Ngoc Dang, Mr. Tran Cong Thang and Mr. Phung Nguyen The Nguyen

PHOTO: NGOC LONG

"Young people are being swept away by AI"

That is the opinion of Dr. Tran Cong Thang, Vice Principal of the School of Medicine and Head of the Department of Neurology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh City, at the scientific conference "Flexible thinking and professional development in the AI ​​and VUCA era" held recently in Ho Chi Minh City. The reason for this opinion is because Mr. Thang has directly witnessed many cases of medical students asking AI to help them with their assignments, but they themselves do not have a grasp of the basic knowledge.

"For example, in the field of neurology, I asked you to write a topic related to dizziness in the elderly. They presented the symptoms very well, the overall picture was very good, and I could immediately tell that there was AI support, but I still appreciated the results. However, when I asked them in depth about their expertise, they seemed confused and did not grasp the problem, showing that you accepted to create a beautiful result even though it was full of ambiguity and uncertainty," he said.

"For medicine, this is unacceptable," Dr. Thang emphasized.

From the above reality, the vice principal pointed out a challenge in medical training today: how to build a solid foundation for learners in the context of young people "throwing everything into AI". At the same time, it is necessary to train them to use AI effectively, absolutely preventing the mentality of accepting uncertainty and ambiguity in knowledge, and even further when diagnosing and treating patients.

Professor Jonathan Van Tam, emeritus professor at the School of Medicine, University of Nottingham (UK), former medical advisor to the British Government, noted that not only in learning, AI is also abused for fraudulent purposes. "The internet is a great tool but we all know it has a dark side. AI is similar, so the problem here is knowing how to choose the right path. Ask yourself what the future patient will benefit from if you only salvage a little knowledge from AI?", he said.

Professor Jonathan Van Tam added that when discussing with patients about the application of AI in the medical field, most of them expressed that they wanted to talk to a real person, not a machine. This is the irreplaceable role of the doctor, although in reality, AI is helping to support many tasks that doctors are not good at, such as recording medical information, diagnosing images, etc.

Associate Professor, Dr. Phung Nguyen The Nguyen, Principal of the School of Medicine, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh City, also warned that AI can arbitrarily fabricate all research data and provide fake evidence, while students use it without any specific declaration. That is why the University has issued principles for using AI to maintain scientific integrity in learning and research.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Ngoc Dang, Deputy Head of the Department of Science and Technology at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh City, said that in the current context, universities must now integrate AI training for learners. The three main training aspects are AI appraisal, AI management and AI creation. Of which, the AI ​​creation aspect is especially important because it can help learners know how to design AI tools to serve Vietnamese people based on the characteristics of Vietnamese people.

According to experts, schools need to take measures to prevent students from abusing AI in studying and taking exams.

AI-GENERATED PHOTOS

AI helps in many aspects

Besides challenges and risks, experts believe that technology in general and AI in particular are an indispensable part and will even contribute to changing the "portrait" of the current medical and pharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Pham Thi My Lien, Director of GSK Vietnam, believes that AI has now become a powerful assistant for doctors in clinical practice. Ms. Lien herself currently applies AI in about 50% of her work, such as preparing concise content for presentations, taking meeting minutes or supporting more natural English speaking. Her company also develops AI virtual assistant tools for employees and pharmaceutical representatives.

AI also promotes the formation of a new ecosystem, not only doctors, nurses, pharmacists but also the participation of technology engineers, data managers and experts on AI ethics. Thanks to that, career opportunities in the medical field are also more diverse. In addition, the massive database for training AI also creates conditions for learners and researchers to access useful information sources for evidence-based medicine and clinical research.

"30 years ago, no one thought that the medical and digital fields would have such a close relationship as they do today," said Ms. Lien.

In terms of administration, AI helps free people from repetitive tasks - one of the factors that cause medical staff to burn out, thereby creating conditions for them to have more time to take care of themselves and develop their expertise, according to Associate Professor, Dr. Dang.

In fact, in Ho Chi Minh City, 41% of medical staff are suffering from occupational burnout, according to a study by Mr. Dang and his colleagues. Therefore, the role of automation and AI applications is becoming more urgent than ever.

According to Mr. Dang, the increasing presence of AI tools also puts medical staff in a new mindset. That is, how to become a real human, such as empathizing with the pain of patients or doing work that makes them happy. Because in addition to their professional roles, medical staff are also children, parents, friends and colleagues.

For example, since applying AI, Mr. Dang has had more time to play with his children, as well as being able to play sports and go to piano lessons - which were his dreams in the past when his finances were not stable.

"Be human in the world of AI," Associate Professor Dang concluded.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/noi-lo-sinh-vien-y-dung-ai-de-hoc-toi-luc-chan-doan-lai-mo-ho-185251114161511609.htm