This blog reflects the views of the author. The Council of Deans of Health has a wide membership and set of partnerships with a range of opinions that do not necessarily constitute formal positions of the Council. We value that diversity of thought and experience.
Dr Istapraq W Hashem is a PhD candidate at the University of Nottingham, with a background in Clinical dentistry and dental education whose research encompasses AI and healthcare education. Her supervisors are from across disciplines at the University of Nottingham, University of Surrey and Murdoch University (Australia). In this blog, Dr. Istapraq W. Hashem reflects on the role of AI in healthcare education, exploring its potential benefits and challenges, such as ethical concerns and a lack of guidance for educators. Early survey findings from UK educators highlight a lack of AI policy and formal training, underlining the need for further exploration in this evolving field.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the new hot topic in education and research across the healthcare sector. The inception of generative AI tools through the launch of ChatGPT in 2022 brought mainstream accessibility to generative AI tools creating an explosion of users.
AI is no longer limited to computer science or data science. In healthcare and education alike, there has been ongoing exploration and the soft introduction of AI software’s since the early 1990s (Zawacki-Richter 2019). AI has been steadily integrated into these domains, revolutionising the landscape. In healthcare education, students across disciplines are increasingly drawn to these technologies, driven by their potential to enhance learning opportunities to simplify concepts, provide live tutoring and case based clinical scenarios’. The research and literature supports this trend, highlighting how AI-driven solutions can empower healthcare students by providing access to vast amounts of medical and clinical knowledge (Masters 2019).
In education, and especially healthcare education, the adoption of AI presents both opportunities and challenges. While AI will enrich students experience by personalising education, there are also notable ethical concerns which arise due to the lack of diversity in datasets, AI hallucinations and the utilisation of poor quality information available online (Katznelson & Gerke, 2021). Since student’s are often ahead of the curve with new technologies, where does this leave the educators?
Research exploring how educators are harnessing the use of AI in teaching and learning, is still in its infancy. However, researchers at the University of Nottingham, University of Surrey and Murdoch University (Australia) are exploring this paradigm and are engaging with educators across healthcare courses in the UK to understand their experiences and perspective of the use of AI in education.
Early findings from our national survey to educators across the UK, exploring the current guidance that Higher Education Institutions are providing to both students and educators regarding the use of AI has found that over half of respondent do not know what guidance is available, suggesting either a lack of clear policy or of policy dissemination. In addition, 95% of respondents thus far report they have not received any formal training in the use of AI.
These initial findings provide a small window into this evolving field and the impact that AI may have on teaching and learning in the healthcare sector.
We are therefore keen to hear from as many voices and opinions across UK – if you have 15 minutes, we want to hear from you about your perspective, the successes, challenges, lessons learned and what the future should look like.
Please click here to access the survey.
If you have any questions about the survey or research more broadly, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Istapraq W Hashem.
Reference:
- Katznelson G & Gerke S. 2021. The need for health AI ethics in medical school education. Advanced Health Science Education Theory Practice. 26(4) pp. 1447-1458.
- Masters, K. (2019). Artificial intelligence in medical education. Med Teach. 41(9), 976-980.
- Zawacki-Richter, O., Marín, V. I., Bond, M., & Gouverneur, F. (2019). Systematic review of research on artificial intelligence applications in higher education – where are the educators? [Systematic review]. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education. 16(39).