Digital health technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) are rapidly changing how medicine is practiced, how care is delivered and how patients engage with the health system. As these technologies become more capable and embedded in care, physicians will play a critical role in shaping how they are used to improve patient care.
The American Medical Association (AMA) and Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) brought together leaders from across medicine, health systems, government, technology and the patient community to begin defining the physician’s role in this changing environment. The resulting framework identifies five enduring responsibilities of physicians and establishes a foundation for continued work on how medical practice, education, technology, payment and policy must evolve alongside digital health and AI.
Five enduring responsibilities for physicians
The physician’s role will continue to evolve as technology advances. The framework identifies five responsibilities that remain fundamental to the profession:
- Preserve trust through human connection
Ensure empathy, communication and shared decision-making remain at the heart of medicine. - Demonstrate and promote clinical judgment
Apply clinical expertise, judgment and accountability where they create the greatest value for patients. - Lead the evolution of medical practice
Help shape technology-enabled models of care that improve quality, continuity and access while preserving the physician’s highest-value contributions. - Steward the responsible use of technology
Guide the safe, effective and equitable integration of digital health and AI into clinical practice. - Advance the profession
Prepare future generations of physicians while preserving and strengthening clinical expertise and ethical decision-making.
Download the framework (PDF).
Building a shared roadmap for the future of medicine
Physicians cannot shape this future alone. Patients and patient groups, clinical professionals, technology developers and investors, policymakers and payers all have essential roles in creating the conditions for technology to strengthen medical practice and improve patient care.
The accompanying Shared Roadmap for Defining the Physician’s Role in the Digital and AI Era begins to identify how these stakeholders can work together. It describes a progression from near-term alignment of priorities, capabilities and incentives, through implementation of new models of care, toward a future in which every patient can access timely, compassionate and clinically appropriate care delivered by empowered physicians and care teams and supported by trustworthy technology.
Download the roadmap (PDF).
Advancing the work
The framework and roadmap establish an initial direction for how the practice of medicine must evolve in the digital and AI era, while preserving the responsibilities patients will continue to rely on physicians to fulfill. They are intended to provide a common foundation for the deeper work ahead, rather than prescribe detailed approaches for implementation today.
The next phase will require continued collaboration across the healthcare ecosystem to translate these principles into practice: defining evolving roles and responsibilities, developing the education and competencies physicians need, designing and evaluating new models of care, and addressing the policy, payment, technology and infrastructure required to support them.
The AMA will continue this work with physicians, patients, other clinical professionals, health systems, technology leaders, policymakers, payers and other stakeholders as digital health and AI continue to evolve. The goal is to ensure that the future of medicine strengthens the profession, preserves the clinical expertise and human connection patients rely on, and delivers better care for every patient.
