Making AI’s Use in Medicine Más Fácil
A new online certificate course in Spanish focuses on the ethics of artificial intelligence in health care
By Amy Ellis
Illustration/animation by Stephanie Dalton Cowan
The Spanish-language self-paced course is geared toward medical professionals in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In the field of medicine, artificial intelligence is now everywhere. AI is being used to answer patient questions after hours, assist doctors with diagnosing and monitoring patients, and streamline medical records and billing.
Just as important as the innovations are the ethical questions raised by AI, said Sergio Litewka, M.D., M.P.H., director of global bioethics at the Miller School’s Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy and associate professor in the DeWitt Daughtry Family Department of Surgery.
Working with instructional designers in the University of Miami’s Division of Continuing and International Education, and in collaboration with the Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Los Andes in Colombia, Dr. Litewka launched an online certificate course last fall on the ethics of AI in medicine. Offered entirely in Spanish, the five-module, self-paced course is geared toward medical professionals in Latin America and the Caribbean who may not have access to the latest information on AI.
“There are very few courses on the ethics of AI in health care — and even less so in Latin America,’’ said Dr. Litewka, who is originally from Argentina and has extensive experience with health care education and reform in the region. “The idea is to make sure physicians are aware of and thinking about the ethical considerations of these new tools.”
The course is also aimed at students in biomedical disciplines, as well as lawyers, journalists, legislators and others who may have an interest in knowing more about the subject. It covers topics like informed patient consent for use of AI, protection of patient information, the problem of bias in many large language models like ChatGPT and, the even more worrisome “hallucinations” when AI tools make up information that sounds plausible.
“We have about 20 learners right now from Argentina, Mexico and Colombia, and we are looking to expand that to many other countries in the region,’’ Dr. Litewka said. “There is a lot of hype and a lot of opportunity around AI. We don’t want to discourage the use of these tools, but we don’t want to have someone so excited about using them that they forget to consider the human element.”
For more information on the course, click here. 
