Harvey Castro, MD, faculty of the American Board of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, said a growing number of healthcare organizations are interested in hiring individuals in high-level AI roles, but there may not be enough talent to fill those roles, Fox News reported Oct. 10.
"We will likely see a huge increase in these roles, but may not have enough AI doctors to fill this space," Dr. Castro told the news outlet.
According to Dr. Castro, about 5,000 U.S. physicians have AI and data science knowledge, but they had to undergo formal training in these fields in order to gain the skills.
This comes as many hospitals and health systems have recently appointed leaders dedicated to AI in order to develop their own strategy around the use of the technology at their organizations.
For example, Phoenix-based Mayo Clinic Arizona most recently appointed Bhavik Patel, MD, as its new chief AI officer, and UC Davis Health, based in Sacramento, Calif., also got its first chief AI adviser this year, appointing Dennis Chornenky to the role.
"I think more organizations are realizing the importance of a role like this, as it can help align an enterprise on strategy, governance, adoption road maps, these kinds of things," Mr. Chornenky told Becker's. "So I think that's the opportunity."