CLINICAL AI

As the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services mandates age-friendly hospital measures beginning in 2025, geriatricians like Dr. April Ehrlich are pioneering the integration of artificial intelligence into clinical practice to address critical gaps in care for older adults. From delirium prediction algorithms to comprehensive geriatric assessment pathways, the convergence of AI technology and evidence-based geriatric medicine represents a fundamental transformation in how healthcare systems serve an aging population, with implications extending far beyond individual patient outcomes to system-wide quality metrics and reimbursement.

Nursing students describe artificial intelligence as both "guardian angel" and "double-edged sword," revealing profound insights into how the next generation of healthcare professionals envisions technology's role in patient care. These metaphorical perceptions, documented in recent qualitative research, expose a fundamental tension between embracing innovation and preserving the human essence of nursing—a balance that will define the profession's future trajectory.

OpenAI's December announcement permitting explicit content on ChatGPT marks a significant pivot from the company's previous stance, joining an already crowded market of AI companion applications. This strategic reversal comes amid mounting evidence of mental health risks associated with AI chatbots, particularly for vulnerable populations, and raises urgent questions about the intersection of commercial interests, therapeutic applications, and patient safety in digital health platforms.

Researchers at USC Viterbi have developed RED (Rare Event Detection), an artificial intelligence algorithm that autonomously identifies circulating tumor cells in blood samples within approximately ten minutes, without requiring prior knowledge of cancer cell characteristics. This unsupervised learning approach represents a paradigm shift in liquid biopsy methodology, potentially accelerating early cancer detection, monitoring treatment response, and informing therapeutic decisions across multiple cancer types.

As healthcare organizations grapple with workforce shortages and operational inefficiencies, technology powerhouses NVIDIA and Palantir Technologies are emerging as critical catalysts in the industry's AI transformation. Through strategic partnerships with leading health systems, these companies are demonstrating how advanced analytics and machine learning can deliver measurable improvements in patient outcomes, operational efficiency, and clinician satisfaction—moving AI from experimental pilots to essential infrastructure.