AI in Health Care: Reporting What’s Real

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

This session lays the groundwork for the event by defining terms, explaining how we got here, regulatory paths and what’s really going on with AI broadly in health care.

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. AI, diagnostics and prevention: Case studies 

This session will delve into AI in diagnosis and EHRs (how patient information can be leveraged to keep patients healthier) to reduce readmissions.

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. AI in the healthcare Gold Rush: Promises, pitfalls, and who pays the price

As AI adoption accelerates across healthcare, this discussion will examine its potential alongside the risks, inequities, and accountability questions that emerge when innovation moves faster than our ability to understand who benefits and who may be harmed.

1:15-2:10 p.m. Medical education and AI

How are medical students being prepared to use AI effectively when the tools are evolving so quickly? Is there a guiding principle within education?

2:15-3:10 p.m. Where there’s smoke: AI in wildfire detection and other disasters

AI is already being used in Western states to spot fires before they become major disasters. Machine learning is also being tested in other disaster situations to predict and minimize impacts on individuals and communities.

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 is a lot of talk that AI will transform drug research, finding cures for diseases that 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.

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