From Promise to Practice: Reflections on the JAMA Summit Report on AI and Healthcare

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer the future of healthcare—it is the present. It reads scans, predicts outcomes, assists with documentation, and organizes hospital operations. Every day, it becomes a little more capable of shaping how care is delivered and how decisions are made.

In October 2025, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) released a landmark report titled “AI, Health, and Health Care Today and Tomorrow.” This report distilled insights from over sixty thought leaders across medicine, academia, policy, and technology, gathered during the 2024 JAMA Summit on Artificial Intelligence. What emerged was a mix of excitement and caution—an acknowledgement of both the extraordinary potential of AI and the profound responsibility that comes with it.

The Promise and the Pause

The promise of AI is undeniable. It can help physicians see patterns invisible to the naked eye, anticipate crises before they occur, and reduce the burden of administrative tasks that take time away from patients. These are remarkable possibilities.

Yet the report invites us to pause. Many of these systems are already being used in hospitals and clinics, but few have been fully tested to prove that they truly improve health outcomes. Faster is not always better. Smarter is not always safer. In our rush to innovate, we must remember that lives and not just data, are at stake.

For healthcare to evolve responsibly, technology must serve people, not the other way around.

Equity at the Core

One of the report’s strongest messages is that AI can only be as just as the data that shapes it. If its training excludes women, minorities, or people from low-resource communities, its predictions will carry those blind spots forward. Bias, once coded, becomes scalable. Failure to address inequities in how data are collected and models are trained could unintentionally deepen the very gaps we seek to close.

For communities already navigating barriers to access and representation, that risk is not theoretical—it is real. True progress will only happen when equity is placed at the center of design, not added as an afterthought. This means creating systems that are inclusive from conception to deployment, with voices from every background informing what “better” really means.

Technology should deepen connection, not divide it.

The Need for Integrity

The JAMA report also underscores the importance of transparency and oversight. In many cases, AI tools enter the marketplace before there is clear evidence of safety or effectiveness. Regulation is still catching up, and that gap can leave patients vulnerable.

Developers and healthcare leaders alike have a shared duty to act with integrity. It is not enough for AI to be powerful; it must also be principled. Every algorithm represents a set of values, and those values must be aligned with compassion, fairness, and respect for human dignity.

Innovation without ethics is innovation without direction.

Keeping Humanity at the Center

As a transformational coach and healthcare advocate, I often remind leaders that technology alone doesn’t create change—people do. Healthcare stakeholders must guard the soul of healthcare, which is the human relationship between caregiver and patient, to ensure it's not overriden by the evolving technology. We must always remember that although machines can analyze, predict, and assist, they cannot listen with empathy or comfort with presence.

When I think about the future of medicine, I imagine not hospitals filled with machines, but systems where technology quietly amplifies the work of the heart. AI should make care more personal, not less. It should help clinicians spend more time connecting, not just computing.

The real transformation is not in the code, but in the compassion that guides its use.

Looking Ahead

The JAMA Summit Report on AI and Healthcare invites us to envision a future where technology and humanity walk hand in hand. As a physician, I am inspired by the potential. As a health advocate, I am cautious about the risks. And as a leader, I am committed to ensuring that progress serves people, especially those who have long been left behind. Artificial Intelligence can revolutionize healthcare. But for it to truly heal, it must remain anchored in humanity. It must remember the patient’s story, the physician’s oath, and the universal call to equity and justice.

If we can hold onto those truths, the future of medicine will not only be intelligent. It will be deeply humane.

With gratitude,

Dr. Lilian O. Ebuoma
The Inspirer