The ideas and innovators shaping health care
| | | | |  | | By Daniel Payne, Ruth Reader, Erin Schumaker and Toni Odejimi | | | | | 
Learning to use AI is becoming part of a doctor's education. | Orlin WagnerAP Photo | The University of Miami has announced a new course on the ethics of artificial intelligence in medicine, the latest push to get doctors and nurses up to speed on the technology clinics and hospitals nationwide are rapidly deploying. The five-module course will cover informed patient consent, data protection and the harms of bias related to AI systems in health care. The course was developed in partnership with the University of the Andes in Colombia and is aimed at medical professionals in Latin America and the Caribbean. Instructors will teach in Spanish. Few courses explore the ethics of AI in medicine — and even fewer are offered in Spanish — making this course important for delivering updated information about the technology, Dr. Sergio Litewka, the director of global bioethics at the University of Miami Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy, said in a statement announcing the program. Why it matters: Medical schools and doctors’ groups are adding courses and resources to help students understand AI’s possibilities, problems and limits in health care. Harvard Medical School has developed a course to teach students about AI tools. Yale created a program for entrepreneurs and those in the life sciences industry. And the University of Texas offers a medical degree paired with a master’s in AI. Additionally, the American Medical Association has developed continuing medical education in AI for doctors. And it’s not just the schools pushing the need for AI education for health providers. The organizations that create board exams are actively discussing the need to test students’ abilities to use the emerging technology as it’s adopted into the health system.
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Banff, Alberta, Canada | Shawn Zeller/POLITICO | This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb has proposed legislation to require companies to get consent from consumers before collecting and sharing data that may reveal something about their health status. It’s similar to Washington state’s My Health My Data Act, which is aimed at safeguarding reproductive health information. What do you think? Are more states likely to take this approach? Let Ruth know. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com, Daniel Payne at dpayne@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com, Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com, or Toni Odejimi at aodejimi@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp.
| | |  Figuring out how old internet users are is harder than it sounds. | Leon Neal/Getty Images | “Age-gating” to keep underage users off social media is growing in popularity as a way to shield kids from the harms many mental health specialists blame on the sites, our colleagues at Digital Future Daily report. It sounds simple: requiring visitors to confirm they’re old enough to access a website. Already, 19 states have passed laws ordering mainly two kinds of sites — social media and porn — to verify their users’ ages. But as a policy solution, it has a key flaw: Kids can lie about their age. What’s next? In 2022, Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, began testing facial-age estimation, which uses artificial intelligence to guess a person’s age by analyzing the geometry and features of their face. A recent evaluation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology showed that the technology’s accuracy varies. Other proposed age-verification methods don’t use biometric data but may run into their own legal or ethical issues. One online store selling tobacco products asks customers to provide their full legal name, permanent address, date of birth and the last four digits of their Social Security number before they can place an order. The company automatically verifies the information with third-party software, which checks it against public records to confirm the purchaser is at least 21. If the records don’t match or customers prefer not to provide their Social Security number, they must upload a valid government-issued ID for manual verification. Even so: Critics say that such tough age-verification tools could make it difficult for adults to visit certain sites. In its next term, the Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether a Texas law requiring pornography websites to limit access for minors by verifying users’ ages violates the First Amendment.
| | | | Understand 2024’s big impacts with Pro’s extensive Campaign Races Dashboard, exclusive insights, and key coverage of federal- and state-level debates. Focus on policy. Learn more. | | | | | | | | |  A Louisiana health system is using remote monitoring to reduce in-person visits during pregnancy. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images | In boosting maternal health, remote monitoring of mothers’ health during pregnancy shows promise. Louisiana’s Ochsner Health has used remote monitoring to improve maternal health outcomes at its facilities since 2016. The program sends pregnant people home with a remote blood pressure cuff that requires a reading once a week. Moms who participate come into the doctor’s office less often than those who don’t and are diagnosed with heart disease earlier. They also have lower rates of preterm birth and cesarean delivery. Ochsner recently won an award from the Department of Health and Human Services for its program. The Connected MOM (maternal online monitoring) platform reached more than 2,000 patients last year. The rub: Medicaid’s low-income population tends to have higher rates of heart disease than the country at large, but Medicaid doesn’t always cover the cost of remote devices. Ochsner obtained a waiver to cover women on Medicaid; however, Ochsner OB-GYN Veronica Gillispie-Bell told Ruth it didn’t reimburse enough to cover costs. Why it matters: High blood pressure is a driver of maternal death. Louisiana has the highest rate of maternal mortality in the U.S. What’s next? Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and a group of other senators have proposed legislation to require Medicaid to create billing codes that would allow for broader reimbursement. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
