Artificial intelligence (AI) can be defined generally as any human-like intelligence displayed by computers. The NHS workforce in the UK has come under tremendous pressure in recent times due to issues such as staff shortages, the post-pandemic backlog and tighter budgets. AI-driven approaches are now being adopted with the intention of reducing waste and tackling apparent and latent inefficiencies in the health system. This development, coupled with the challenge of the limited or non-incorporation of formal AI modules in many medical schools across the UK has made it crucial for medical practitioners and students to become familiar with AI technology and its capabilities.

To overcome this challenge, we aim to organise a one-day workshop to bring academics, students, technocrats, and hobbyists with a background in AI and healthcare research in fields such as biomedical engineering (BME), ethics, life sciences, computer science, mathematics, and law, in contact with students and teaching and research staff from Warwick Medical School, in order to raise awareness and understanding of the issues at stake in the deployment of AI in healthcare and medicine. The workshop will revolve around three major themes of the Productivity & Futures of Work GRP. We shall consider factors driving and enabling innovation in AI products and processes, the impact that AI research can have on future work paradigms in the healthcare sector as well as in interdisciplinary research, and explore examples where greater productivity has been observed in healthcare delivery through the use of AI systems.

Anticipated outcomes of the workshop include facilitating more intentional and cohesive collaborations between institutes and departments at the University of Warwick deploying AI research in healthcare and clinicians and medical students from Warwick Medical School, as well as uncovering challenges surrounding implementation of AI in clinical practice, which could potentially create avenues for building trust for AI in translational medicine in the long term. Online feedback forms will be distributed to participants after the event for the purpose of documenting the main take-aways from the workshop and sharing their thoughts on future plans for collaborations in AI research. Also, notes taken from the discussions/debates/presentations during the workshop will be transformed into reports on major submissions and issues covered.

By organising this workshop, we hope to dispel long held beliefs about the trustworthiness or otherwise of AI implementations in healthcare by bringing to fore examples that work. We also hope to bridge the gap between medical practitioners, medical students, and AI practitioners in other disciplines, while also identifying concrete pathways for enhanced collaborations between the different disciplines.

This event is mainly being sponsored by the Futures of Work GRP, with the Health GRP providing supporting funds.