Digital Health Frontier Blog

By John Halamka and Paul Cerrato — Developing and implementing AI-driven algorithms in health care has proven far more complicated than we first imagined. The new Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) guidelines provide the much-needed blueprint.

By John Halamka • April 6, 2023

By John Halamka and Paul Cerrato — Shared decision-making doesn't mean encouraging patients to take the path of least resistance. Prescribing lifestyle changes may not put a smile on their faces, but the long-term benefits often outweigh the risks of lifelong dependence on prescription medication.

By John Halamka • March 29, 2023

By John Halamka and Paul Cerrato — New digital tools are a two-edged sword that come with a unique set of benefits and risks. We need a regulatory framework to manage them responsibly.

By John Halamka • March 20, 2023

By John Halamka and Paul Cerrato — With over 10,000 mental health apps available, it’s difficult to know which ones will actually have a therapeutic impact. Fortunately, enough high-quality evidence is available to help clinicians and patients make an informed choice.

By John Halamka • March 2, 2023

By John Halamka and Paul Cerrato — The bionic man and woman are no longer fictional TV characters. With the help of state-of-the-art digital technology, they’re your next-door neighbor.

By John Halamka • February 27, 2023

By John Halamka and Paul Cerrato — The National Institute of Standards and Technology recently published a framework that will help health care providers assess AI trustworthiness, explainability, and bias.

By John Halamka • February 14, 2023

By John Halamka and Paul Cerrato — ChatGPT and similar systems will increasingly be part of our lives, including health care. We need guidelines to ensure their ethical deployment.

By John Halamka • February 1, 2023

By John Halamka and Paul Cerrato — When clinicians have no definitive guidelines or empirical evidence on which to base their decisions, they still must come up with a care plan that meets their patients’ needs. Combining data from the available published studies with intelligence gleaned from electronic patient records can often address the dilemma.

By John Halamka • January 27, 2023

By John Halamka and Paul Cerrato - The broad access to such services that occurred at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic should not be rolled back. Finding a way to extend the regulatory waivers that made this possible is in our patients’ best interest.

By John Halamka • January 12, 2023

By John Halamka and Paul Cerrato - There’s no shortage of startups with creative ways to use the technology to improve patient care and make clinicians’ lives less burdensome, and that includes digital assistants.

By John Halamka • January 5, 2023