AMA Establishes New Center to Guide Digital Health and AI in Medicine

Chicago, IL – The American Medical Association (AMA) officially launched its new Center for Digital Health and AI on October 20, 2025, according to an announcement from the organization. This significant initiative aims to place physicians at the forefront of integrating rapidly advancing digital health and artificial intelligence technologies into healthcare practices.

The primary goal of the Center is to ensure these innovative tools are clinically valid, ethically sound, and seamlessly align with the crucial patient-physician relationship, as reported by the AMA. AMA CEO and Executive Vice President John Whyte, MD, MPH, emphasized the importance of physicians having a direct say in the future of medical technology.

Dr. Whyte stated that the AMA is leading this effort to responsibly and effectively harness innovation, aiming to improve patient care while simultaneously reducing unnecessary burdens on medical professionals. Without direct physician input, digital health and AI tools risk creating unintended challenges and failing to reach their full potential, according to AMA officials.

The new Center will strategically embed physicians throughout the entire lifecycle of technology development and deployment. This approach is designed to ensure that AI and digital health solutions fit effectively into clinical workflows and that physicians are well-equipped to utilize them.

This move comes as physicians are increasingly adopting AI tools, with recent AMA surveys indicating that 66% of physicians used AI in their practices in 2024, a significant jump from 38% in 2023. However, concerns regarding data privacy, reliability, and safety persist among a quarter of physicians, as noted by Healthcare IT News.

The AMA has consistently advocated for "augmented intelligence" to highlight AI's supportive role, emphasizing that these technologies should enhance, rather than replace, human intelligence in medicine. This philosophy underpins the Center's mission to guide technological advancements in a way that truly benefits patients and supports healthcare providers.

The Center for Digital Health and AI will focus on four key areas: policy and regulatory leadership, clinical workflow integration, education and training, and collaboration across various sectors. These pillars are designed to foster responsible innovation and shape the future of healthcare technology.

• Background and Context of AI in Healthcare: The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence and digital health tools has created both immense opportunities and complex challenges within the medical field, as highlighted by FinancialContent. The AMA has been actively studying physicians' use of AI for two years, developing guidance to better serve its members, according to ramaonhealthcare. This proactive stance aims to prevent technology from creating additional burdens on medical professionals.

• Physician Sentiment and Adoption Trends: Recent AMA surveys reveal a growing enthusiasm for AI among physicians, with 68% seeing advantages in its use and 66% having incorporated AI-enabled tools into their practice by 2024, as reported by Medical Economics. Despite this, approximately a quarter of physicians remain more concerned than excited, citing potential risks to data privacy, reliability, and safety, according to AMA statements.

• Ethical and Regulatory Frameworks: The AMA has previously established policies emphasizing the need for transparency and oversight in AI tools used in clinical care, as detailed by Becker's Hospital Review in June 2025. These policies call for explainable AI tools that provide clear reasoning for their outputs and advocate for independent third-party verification of algorithms to ensure safety and efficacy. The AMA Journal of Ethics has also addressed critical ethical dilemmas, including patient privacy and the boundaries between physician and machine roles.

• Core Pillars of the New Center: The Center for Digital Health and AI will concentrate on policy and regulatory leadership, working with stakeholders to establish benchmarks for safe and effective AI use, according to Mega Doctor News. It will also focus on clinical workflow integration, creating opportunities for physicians to shape tools that enhance patient and clinician experience, and provide education and training for effective AI integration. Collaboration across tech, research, government, and healthcare sectors is also a key objective.

• Augmented Intelligence Philosophy: The AMA consistently uses the term "augmented intelligence" to describe AI's role in healthcare, emphasizing its function as a tool to empower and assist healthcare professionals rather than replace them, as explained by Nexus IT. This perspective ensures that AI solutions are designed to enhance human capabilities and support physicians' decision-making processes, rather than overriding clinical judgment.

• Addressing Physician Concerns and Future Developments: The Center aims to address lingering physician concerns by ensuring AI tools are developed with physician input, thereby improving clinical workflows and allaying fears, according to HealthLeaders Media. AMA CEO John Whyte told Fierce Healthcare that the Center will explore critical topics such as data transparency, ethical disclosures to patients, financial disclosures, patient outcomes, and physician liability. This proactive engagement is crucial for promoting responsible innovation.

• Comparison with Other Initiatives: While other organizations, such as the Coalition for Health AI and the Digital Medicine Society, have released AI guidance, the AMA emphasizes its unique physician-first outlook, as noted by Fierce Healthcare. The AMA believes its Center will address issues overlooked by other groups, particularly how AI tools will operate day-to-day for clinicians, ensuring practical applicability and physician relevance.