AMA unveils Center for Digital Health and AI

The American Medical Association launched the Center for Digital Health and AI with the goal of empowering physicians to play a central role in guiding and implementing advanced technologies.

The center aims to bring physicians into conversations around technology development and deployment. It will focus on creating opportunities for physicians to shape health AI and digital health tools within clinical workflows and provide healthcare providers with the knowledge and tools to integrate AI. The center also aims to foster partnerships across the technology, research, government and healthcare sectors to drive innovation.

Further, the center will enable physicians to collaborate with regulators, policymakers and technology leaders to develop benchmarks for safe and effective use of health AI and digital health tools.

"Augmented Intelligence will be a defining force in the future of health care, but right now we are barely scratching the surface of its potential. Digital health tools are everywhere and the technology has limitless opportunity, but if you don't understand clinical practice or clinical workflow, even the best tools will never be fully implemented," said John Whyte, M.D., executive vice president and CEO of the American Medical Association (AMA), in the press release.

"By launching this Center, the AMA is leading in this space so physicians have a say in the technology and clinical care of the future. Our goal is to harness innovation responsibly and effectively, so it improves patient care and reduces unnecessary burdens on physicians," he continued.

Physician interest in health AI and digital health is growing, according to AMA surveys. These surveys reveal a significant increase in digital health tool adoption, with the average number of tools used by a single physician rising from 2.2 in 2016 to 3.8 in 2022. Similarly, AMA surveys show that the proportion of physicians whose enthusiasm exceeded their concerns about health AI increased from 30% in 2023 to 35% in 2024.

Physicians also cited the factors critical to driving adoption further. In 2024, they noted that the top facilitators of physician AI adoption were a designated feedback channel (88%), data privacy assurances (87%) and EHR integration (84%).

Not only is physician adoption of AI growing, but the need for guidance has become more urgent. On his first day as president, Donald Trump rescinded numerous executive orders from the Biden era, including one mandating trustworthy AI development and deployment. Following this action, the industry sprang into action, creating collaboratives and developing guidelines for safe and responsible AI use in healthcare.

However, recent reports reveal that the Trump administration is not supportive of some of these efforts, particularly the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI), which has played a key role in shaping industry-driven AI guidance. In early October, Trump administration officials wrote an editorial stating that CHAI was regulating and stifling AI development, while HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., took to X to warn against letting CHAI "build a regulatory cartel."

Anuja Vaidya has covered the healthcare industry since 2012. She currently covers the virtual healthcare landscape, including telehealth, remote patient monitoring and digital therapeutics.