AI is already reshaping how healthcare organizations deliver and coordinate care. But with so many potential applications, how do you know which use cases will truly move the needle? What principles should guide leaders as they evaluate solutions? And most importantly, how can executives ensure that AI translates into real benefits for physicians, patients, and the organization as a whole?
To shed light on those questions, we teamed up with Becker’s Hospital Review for a webinar, Responsible AI in Primary Care: Driving Quality, Trust and Transformation. The expert panelists shared key lessons learned from responsibly deploying AI in primary care, highlighting four key themes that healthcare organizations should keep front of mind.
Key #1: Safeguarding patient privacy
Privacy is a universal concern in AI, but in healthcare it carries special weight. The sensitive nature of medical records, combined with the reliance on third-party AI vendors and the need to abide with regulations like HIPAA, makes data protection non-negotiable. For healthcare organizations, the real challenge is not just adopting AI, but ensuring they understand exactly how each solution collects, transmits, stores, and safeguards patient information.
“I think it is really important that responsibility be woven into the deployment of AI everywhere, but particularly in healthcare. And to my mind, it's defined in two main areas. One, is that we have a full understanding of where the data flows and its interaction with AI,” said Dr. Thomas Maddox, Executive Director of the Healthcare Innovation Lab at BJC HealthCare/WashU Medicine. He stressed the need to ensure that any AI solution interacts with sensitive health data “in a way that respects the privacy that underlies what we do.”
Key #2: Synergy between clinicians and technology
AI’s real value in healthcare manifests itself in what it empowers clinicians to do. When paired thoughtfully with physicians, AI can streamline workflows and elevate the quality of patient care. But just as important is knowing where to draw the line: AI should never make high-stakes clinical decisions in isolation. Keeping a “human in the loop” ensures that expert judgment guides every recommendation, protecting against legal pitfalls, automation bias, and unintended consequences.
“We as physicians want to make sure that the EMR and AI are not making decisions on their own and directing care without a physician,” explained Dr. Lina Shihabuddin, Chief Population Health Officer at RWJBarnabas Health.
AI’s impact depends on seamless collaboration with clinicians, making usability an essential factor. As our conversation underscored, even the most sophisticated solution delivers no value unless clinicians use it in their daily workflows.
Key #3: Clinical trials for evaluating AI
Selecting the right AI solution requires the same evidence-based rigor that healthcare organizations already apply when evaluating new medications or procedures. As our experts pointed out, these organizations would do well to use those best practices when evaluating whether a given AI technology is a worthwhile investment.
“Part of our job is to be careful and thoughtful about how we deploy any tool, be it a new drug, a new procedure, or in this case a new technology to support clinical care. We just need to do what we always do when we're introducing a new approach to care delivery to our clinicians,” said Dr. Maddox. “What do we need to know if we're evaluating a new drug? We need to see the evidence. We need to see studies that have demonstrated the benefit that we are expecting for our patients or for our workflow. And we also need some sort of fluency in the performance characteristics that need to be applied to this technology.”
Key #4: Relying on clinician champions
After selecting an AI solution, its true impact comes down to whether clinicians embrace it. Adoption isn’t automatic. It requires trust, buy-in, and day-to-day use. One of the most effective ways to accelerate adoption is having a physician champion who not only believes in the technology but also inspires colleagues to follow their lead.
Dr. Marie McCormack, Division Chief of Primary Care at Renown Health, shared the importance of “super-users” in this respect. “I think somebody has to own it,” she said. “There has to be somebody that everyone trusts that actually is the person pushing the program. That makes such a huge difference, when you're able to speak to it personally.”
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