Thursday, Oct. 8

Build the Foundation

Thursday gives journalists the context and critical framework they need before seeing AI at work. Sessions will explore how the technology is changing diagnosis and prevention, the patient-provider relationship, medical education, drug development and disaster forecasting, while examining the evidence, ethics, regulation and other questions reporters need to understand in a rapidly evolving field. Discussions throughout the day will challenge participants to apply what they are learning to real-world decision-making and tradeoffs.

7-8 a.m. Breakfast Buffet

Laguna Beach Room

8:15-8:30 a.m. Welcome, introductions and thank-yous

Regency Ballroom

8:30-9:25 a.m. AI 101: Gaining clarity when development is at blur speed

Artificial intelligence has rapidly spread into every nook and cranny of health care — or so the pitches and press releases would have you believe. It can be challenging to tell which technologies might have a real impact on patients and which are marketing fluff. This session will examine how different classes of artificial intelligence and machine learning tools in medicine have evolved over time, the rules and regulations that do (and don’t) govern them, and which have gained a significant foothold.

9:30-10:25 a.m. Hello, doc; meet my chatbot

Implications for change — for better or for worse — in the provider-patient relationship with AI in the room on both sides.

10:25-10:35 a.m. 10-minute Break

10:35-11:30 a.m. Super sleuthing: AI in diagnostics and prevention

Many hospitals today are incorporating AI into their electronic health records systems. These tools can review patient vital signs and symptoms in real time, alerting physicians when a disease state worsens. In less urgent situations, they can help predict health outcomes. In this panel, physicians from three Los Angeles hospitals will share some of their efforts using and validating AI tools to predict or identify sepsis, postoperative complications for patients with cancer, lung blood clots, brain bleeds, and more.

11:30-12:15 p.m. You make the call: An AI decision-making exercise

• Introduction: Participants will be presented with a realistic scenario involving the use of AI in health care and asked to decide what they would do with incomplete information, competing priorities and no obvious right answer. 
• Table discussions: Surface the questions journalists should be asking about evidence, accountability, bias, patient impact and tradeoffs. We’ll return to the scenario at the end of the day to compare decisions and hear how different groups approached the problem.

12:15 p.m. Lunch Buffet

Served in the Regency Ballroom, where attendees will be seated for the next session.

12:30-1:15 p.m. The AI gold rush in health care: Promises, pitfalls and who pays the price?

In this session, Tiffani Bright, computational bioinformaticist and co-director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education at Cedars-Sinai, will talk about how AI is racing into clinical care, decision-making, and our own patient records — sometimes in invisible and potentially harmful ways. She will also discuss work being done to ensure new technologies don’t exclude vulnerable populations and how quickly developing AI tools might be best created, used and regulated.

1:15-2:10 p.m. Schooled by AI: The evolving role of artificial intelligence in medical education

Artificial intelligence is shaping how doctors are being taught, both formally and informally. This session will highlight the diverse ways AI is being incorporated into medical school and medical training curricula, as well as how it is being harnessed to provide continuing education to practicing providers. Journalists will learn about how AI is shaping the way clinicians think — and what that means for patients in the short and long term.

2:15-3:10 p.m. How AI Is changing disaster detection and response

The average number of billion-dollar disasters per year is more than six times what it was in the 1980s; the most expensive years on record have all occurred in the past five. Artificial intelligence can help address pernicious challenges that crop up every time disaster strikes: detecting threats early, coordinating relief efforts, and saving lives and property. But when and how to use AI remains a sensitive issue, especially when public trust in AI is so low. In this session, two researchers at the forefront of these questions will weigh the exciting pros and the troubling cons of this new technology.

3:10-3:25 p.m. 15-minute Break

3:25-4:20 p.m. The promise and the hype: How AI is changing drug R&D and how it isn’t

There’s a lot of talk about how AI will transform drug research, finding cures for diseases that have confounded human scientists. Many biopharma companies are incorporating AI into their labs, but the technology hasn’t yielded an approved drug to date. This panel will take a hard look at the applications for AI in drug R&D, and its limitations and equip reporters with the important questions to ask.

4:20-5 p.m. You made the call. Now, what shaped your decision?

We’ll reconvene to compare choices, unpack the assumptions and values behind them, and explore what the exercise reveals about the ethical questions journalists will encounter as AI becomes more embedded in health care.

5-7 p.m. Outdoor Reception

Jetway Patio