A Pair of Texas-Based Schools Are on the Leading Edge of Teaching Doctors About AI

University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and University College at the University of Texas at San Antonio are offering an MD/MS in artificial intelligence dual degree.

Two Texas-based schools are the first educational institutions to offer an MD/MS in artificial intelligence dual degree.

The dual degree is being offered by University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and University College at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Planning for the dual degree program began in 2018, and the program launched in 2022.

Leaders at the schools saw the increasing importance of AI in healthcare when they started planning for the dual degree program, says Ronald Rodriguez, MD, PhD, director of the MD/MS in AI program and professor of medical education at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

"In 2018, there was a recognition that data science and data analytics were going to become increasingly important in the healthcare workforce," he says. "In the health sciences realm, we were increasingly aware that machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques were becoming more used in the basic sciences. We predicted that there was going to be an explosion of AI in the health sciences and healthcare. We wanted to be at the beginning of this development."

W. Allen Fink, DO, MHA, CMO of UT Health San Antonio, says there are clear advantages to having doctors earn an academic degree in AI.

"A physician trained in AI brings a unique skill set that enhances traditional medical practice," Fink says. "By leveraging a formal AI education, they can help us create ways to improve diagnostic accuracy, personalize treatment plans, streamline operations, and contribute to groundbreaking medical research. Additionally, there are emerging areas for AI integration that are not yet fully known and have potential to impact our patients and organizations to an even greater degree. The integration of AI into healthcare represents a significant step toward more efficient, effective, and patient-centered care."

Fink says he would "certainly" be in favor of hiring a doctor who graduated from the MD/MS in AI dual degree program.

Teaching doctors about AI

There are three pathways through which students can apply to the dual degree program: computer science, data analytics, and robotics, Rodriguez says.

"Most of our students are going through the data analytics pathway," he says. "We have been recommending students follow the data analytics pathway because it does not require as much theory in computer science. Data analytics is more of a practical and applied-education approach."

The core elements of the MS in AI degree include understanding how to implement the tools of artificial intelligence, Rodriguez says.

"Those tools include machine learning, neural networks, deep learning, convolutional neural networks, and natural language processing," he says. "All of these tools are essentially the toolbox to be able to create the artificial intelligence applications that are being used in healthcare right now."

Teaching doctors about AI should put more physicians in leadership roles in the development of the technology, Rodriguez says.

"For the most part, development of these technologies has been done through computer scientists and data analysts as opposed to being developed by physicians," he says. "By having physicians drive development of the technology, we can ensure that it is focused on patient-centered care and health outcomes in a way that is not driven necessarily by business interests such as profits."