Jeremy Orr, MD, MPH: Mistakes with AI During COVID-19

Jeremy Orr, MD, MPH

Along with challenges of leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many mistakes have been made as well.

Physicians and health systems need to learn how to properly use the technology to be prepared for future pandemics.

Two areas for improvement lie in surveillance and resource allocation, Jeremy Orr, MD, MPH, chief executive officer of Medial EarlySign, said in a recent interview with HCPLive®.

“No doubt we’re going to do better the next time around and more of these technologies will be deployed and used properly,” Orr said.

Public health officials from the top like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to the bottom like state departments were heroic in their efforts but fell short amid challenges.

This is also a critical learning period in terms of racial disparity, he said. Machine-learning algorithms and AI, if not carefully designed and tested, could exacerbate the biases and effects seen in data.

“We have to be extremely mindful of biases in data and then how these algorithms are delivered and make sure they are not contributing to inequality of care delivery and other factors,” he said.

Still, without AI, society would likely be worse off.

To hear more from Orr, watch the clip below.