Exploring AI’s role in health care with Dr. Peter McCaffrey
This episode of The Pulse with Dr. McCaffrey highlights UTMB’s pioneering role in integrating artificial intelligence into health care and research. Dr. Charles P. Mouton, executive vice president, provost and dean of the John Sealy School of Medicine, introduces Dr. McCaffrey, UTMB’s Chief AI Officer, who elaborates on the new AI Council’s mission to harmonize AI efforts across UTMB. The council ensures each department's needs are met while focusing on the rapid, safe and aligned deployment of AI initiatives.
Dr. McCaffrey explains how AI is transforming patient care, particularly in emergency radiology and pathology. Using AI, UTMB’s care teams can identify life-threatening conditions faster, streamline workflows and enhance diagnostic accuracy. The integration of AI extends to screening processes that detect underlying conditions, adding a crucial layer of preventative care. These advancements enrich clinician-patient interactions by reducing administrative tasks, enabling clinicians to focus on direct patient care.
In research, AI facilitates patient-trial matching by structuring vast amounts of unstructured data within medical records. This innovation allows for quicker, more precise recruitment of eligible participants in studies, strengthening UTMB’s research capabilities.
Addressing potential concerns, Dr. McCaffrey reassures listeners that AI at UTMB is a tool that supports, rather than replaces, clinician decision-making. Safety, transparency and ethical considerations remain at the forefront, affirming UTMB’s commitment to high-quality, patient-centered care.
- 100:00:00,840 --> 00:00:09,600Welcome to The Pulse: UTMB Health's podcast, your gateway to the latest insights, ideas and innovations shaping our community and beyond.200:00:10,230 --> 00:00:16,530Stay tuned for engaging discussions, compelling stories, and the information you need to stay informed and connected.300:00:16,830 --> 00:00:22,470Right here, on The Pulse. Welcome.400:00:23,410 --> 00:00:31,210This time on The Pulse, I'm Dr. Charles Mouton, executive vice president, provost and dean of the John Sealy School of Medicine.500:00:32,200 --> 00:00:38,530As we continue to bring you compelling conversations about education, research, health care, and innovation,600:00:38,890 --> 00:00:46,090you'll occasionally hear from various hosts, each bringing their own unique perspective and expertise to the conversation.700:00:46,870 --> 00:00:56,920Together, we'll dive into topics discussing the future of medicine and how that will shape the impact here at UTMB, both locally and globally.800:00:57,670 --> 00:01:05,620Today, I'm joined by Dr. Peter McCaffrey, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer at UTMB.900:01:06,520 --> 00:01:09,970Dr. McCaffrey, welcome to The Pulse. Thank you for having me.1000:01:11,020 --> 00:01:20,140Can you spend a few minutes talking about the new artificial intelligence, aka AI Council, and what it will do at UTMB,1100:01:20,170 --> 00:01:27,340and a little bit more about how you see your role as the new and our first Chief AI Officer.1200:01:27,460 --> 00:01:29,710Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Uh, so really,1300:01:29,710 --> 00:01:38,680the AI Council exists to let us be efficient and aligned while not ignoring the needs that people have in certain areas of the enterprise,1400:01:38,860 --> 00:01:42,700and being mindful of what our workforce wants and our various members want.1500:01:42,730 --> 00:01:47,470So really, it's our representation across the enterprise of stakeholders, really in leadership,1600:01:47,980 --> 00:01:54,010uh, stretching from academic to operational to clinical areas, knowing what they want out of AI,1700:01:54,010 --> 00:01:57,730what they feel like they need in their departments and their areas out of AI,1800:01:58,390 --> 00:02:05,080so that when we pick initiatives to dive into on an annual and quarterly basis, we all know what we're collectively trying to do.1900:02:05,080 --> 00:02:08,620I think we recognize we want to be fast. We want to be efficient.2000:02:08,650 --> 00:02:14,379We want to be up-to-date, but we really don't want to be irresponsibly so.2100:02:14,380 --> 00:02:18,490So, it's the way to do it with safety and with awareness. That's great.2200:02:19,120 --> 00:02:25,720Can you discuss how UTMB is using artificial intelligence in terms of providing health care to our patients?2300:02:25,900 --> 00:02:31,629Yeah, absolutely. So UTMB is quite innovative in its use of AI, uh, stretching back many years actually.2400:02:31,630 --> 00:02:34,630Uh, obviously more so now than maybe in the past.2500:02:34,630 --> 00:02:39,430But, we use AI in several areas in clinical care. So radiology is a great example of this,2600:02:39,430 --> 00:02:46,150where if you come into UTMB and you have symptoms of a stroke or symptoms of a pulmonary embolism, both are really emergent.2700:02:46,510 --> 00:02:53,469Uh, time sensitive, intense clinical scenarios. Uh, an AI will probably be the first thing that really sees that.2800:02:53,470 --> 00:02:59,950You have that on imaging. It will, uh, annotate the image, put a circle around where it sees that pathology,2900:02:59,950 --> 00:03:04,329and notify the care team as this one very kind of tangible thing where we've seen this,3000:03:04,330 --> 00:03:08,620I saved people's lives, for example, by getting the care pathway activated quicker.3100:03:09,310 --> 00:03:13,360We also use AI a lot in what we'd call, uh, screening settings.3200:03:13,360 --> 00:03:19,960Really. So how do these, uh, chest radiographs that we take for sometimes general health care purposes.3300:03:20,230 --> 00:03:23,500How might they indicate other diseases that perhaps no one was quite aware of?3400:03:23,770 --> 00:03:28,630Things like heart disease or kidney disease or liver disease or skeletal osteoporosis, for example.3500:03:28,990 --> 00:03:33,310So yeah, really helps kind of covering these bases and preventing things from slipping through the cracks.3600:03:33,700 --> 00:03:39,430We use about 40 modules in radiology for AI. We use it in pathology too, especially with things like prostate.3700:03:39,460 --> 00:03:41,800Make sure that our pathologists... I'm a pathologist for example.3800:03:42,010 --> 00:03:47,920Don't miss things on those prostate cords a little piece of cancer here... or invasion of a nerve there...3900:03:47,950 --> 00:03:51,580The AI really helps us cover those bases and ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.4000:03:52,300 --> 00:03:56,680And lastly, AI helps enrich this experience of doing care for patients.4100:03:56,680 --> 00:03:59,950So, um, depending on who you are as a clinician or patient,4200:03:59,950 --> 00:04:03,159you may have benefited from these tools where you go to talk to your doctor and you get to4300:04:03,160 --> 00:04:07,180have a face to face conversation and not the side of someone's head while they type in Epic.4400:04:07,480 --> 00:04:10,570And AI takes care of that scribing activity for you. Really,4500:04:10,570 --> 00:04:17,260just to make it a more personal and direct interaction and to to remove the the bookkeeping so much from4600:04:17,260 --> 00:04:22,089the clinical workflow, and all those things that I mentioned are live in practice today and more will come,4700:04:22,090 --> 00:04:30,190but we use those even now. While I'm sure that all the clinicians here on UTMB thank you and the AI Council for making their lives better.4800:04:30,190 --> 00:04:36,520And our patients certainly thank you for creating an environment that brings higher quality to the health care,4900:04:36,850 --> 00:04:44,740Uh, that we deliver and puts UTMB on the map in terms of this cutting edge technology and utilizing it for the betterment of our patients.5000:04:45,340 --> 00:04:50,590Can you talk a little bit about how AI is helping us do better at conducting research?5100:04:51,070 --> 00:04:53,740Yeah, so I can give a very tangible use case for this.5200:04:53,740 --> 00:05:00,160So... many enterprises, us included, when we look over patient data to do something like match a patient to a trial,5300:05:00,160 --> 00:05:07,630for example, or conduct a research study that needs to have a certain population, there's a lot of filters you would apply.5400:05:07,660 --> 00:05:10,780Okay, well, people need to have this diagnosis, but not that one.5500:05:10,780 --> 00:05:17,890Or maybe they have this genetic test, but not that one. A lot of this information in any EMR, anywhere you go is not really structured.5600:05:18,370 --> 00:05:22,900It's kind of narrative. It's in notes. And historically the only way we could access that5700:05:22,940 --> 00:05:28,730was workforce allocation for someone to read all those notes and make like a spreadsheet out of it.5800:05:29,060 --> 00:05:32,629And, that is expensive, time consuming, and not always correct either.5900:05:32,630 --> 00:05:39,320You know there's challenges there. A really great thing I can do, like GPT, for example, which is good at speaking in notes,6000:05:39,320 --> 00:05:45,650understanding and comprehending them and turning them into structured things... is create this structure where we lacked it before.6100:05:46,280 --> 00:05:51,919And for us, that means things like being able to more efficiently say... What patients have this,6200:05:51,920 --> 00:05:54,379this and this feature, but not that, that and that feature.6300:05:54,380 --> 00:05:59,780So, I can enroll them in a study, give them access to clinical research easily and more efficiently.6400:05:59,780 --> 00:06:07,250I think this is a tremendous value add for AI, basically bringing structure on to the medical record where there wasn't any historically.6500:06:08,090 --> 00:06:16,820Well, I think you and I are believers in AI, but what are some of the concerns that people who may not be so ready to adapt AI,6600:06:17,180 --> 00:06:22,070particularly as it pertains to health care, and particularly as it pertains to our patients?6700:06:22,280 --> 00:06:25,999Yeah, there are very valid concerns that people can have about AI in health care.6800:06:26,000 --> 00:06:29,270And, um, I'm sure patients have them and their right to have them.6900:06:29,270 --> 00:06:34,849We share them as clinicians and as an enterprise. And... and essentially they boil down to a couple of key areas.7000:06:34,850 --> 00:06:39,860So, I think the main one is will this replace my doctors ability to reason about my care?7100:06:40,250 --> 00:06:44,990I don't want, you know, uh, a non-human or a robot deciding what happens to me.7200:06:45,260 --> 00:06:52,700And, I think we would say we fully agree with that, that where AI is helpful today is not in replacing the doctor's reasoning,7300:06:53,000 --> 00:07:01,190but letting the doctor get to do the reasoning more often and more efficiently, and that... it should be comforting, I think.7400:07:01,190 --> 00:07:07,700So, I helping to collect and surface the info a doctor needs to think about, but not thinking on their behalf.7500:07:07,730 --> 00:07:13,760So, that's a valid concern we share. Another one is, you know, how will these tools be from a safety standpoint in general?7600:07:14,510 --> 00:07:19,460Sometimes I that looks over an image for example, is it perfect and will it miss things?7700:07:19,820 --> 00:07:25,040Do we know how often it misses things? How do we deal with that? And I would say this is also something that of course we share.7800:07:25,340 --> 00:07:32,209We're not new to this. You know, I might be a new modality, but we've done this for decades in other kinds of things diagnostic test, therapeutics,7900:07:32,210 --> 00:07:36,640etc. and we apply that same kind of logic, which is evidence base.8000:07:36,650 --> 00:07:43,850What works and what doesn't. Doctor is central to the judicious use of these tools, and we're always vigilant how they perform after the fact.8100:07:43,850 --> 00:07:46,309And I don't think we'll... we ever veer from that.8200:07:46,310 --> 00:07:53,150Uh, keeping to our core ethical principles of doctors guiding for the benefit of the patient every aspect of their care.8300:07:54,200 --> 00:08:01,160That's great. Uh, what are some of the other opportunities that you think AI presents for the future to improve health care,8400:08:01,550 --> 00:08:07,790not only here at UTMB, but in society in general? Yeah, I think there's a tremendous opportunity in access.8500:08:08,300 --> 00:08:13,520You know, bias and imperfect algorithms are always a risk, but they're there risks...8600:08:13,520 --> 00:08:17,180We... we kind of know that we can overcome because we've done it in other areas.8700:08:17,510 --> 00:08:22,459But, lack of access has been this macro thing in health care for a very long time.8800:08:22,460 --> 00:08:27,290You know, in our state, almost every county has some critical physician shortage, some have no physicians.8900:08:27,710 --> 00:08:34,160What people want at a health care is a level of access that I don't think we can really globally give them without AI.9000:08:34,310 --> 00:08:40,670But, the opportunity it lets us have is to give them this. So to say you're in, you know, a rural setting and you have a symptom,9100:08:40,940 --> 00:08:46,549can you get an answer right now about that symptom and being able to kind of scale that intelligence,9200:08:46,550 --> 00:08:51,650that clinical reasoning to everyone, everywhere is a really inherent social good.9300:08:51,650 --> 00:08:56,990I think, I we've known we wanted it in a long time for health care, but I think I finally let's us have this,9400:08:57,140 --> 00:09:01,130uh, not not too quick, you know, but eventually we will get there.9500:09:02,000 --> 00:09:10,160Uh, I think that's great. We know how I can really help us in doing the access piece, the health care piece, even a research piece.9600:09:10,640 --> 00:09:17,690Can you talk a little bit about how you see AI intersecting with our new fourth pillar here at UTMB?9700:09:17,690 --> 00:09:25,300That is... the innovation mission. Yes. So one of the great things about... I'll take language models as an example...9800:09:25,310 --> 00:09:30,950We've all heard of ChatGPT. This type of AI is kind of a new to come out and be so useful.9900:09:31,310 --> 00:09:38,090What's lovely about this than different from historical AI tools, is that if you have a subject matter expertise,10000:09:38,090 --> 00:09:42,170like a workflow you work with, you experience a problem and you can write English.10100:09:42,470 --> 00:09:45,470You are kind of a developer, kind of an innovator.10200:09:45,830 --> 00:09:50,270And that wasn't the way things were in the past. You had to have a computer scientists make a special model do this and that.10300:09:50,600 --> 00:09:54,739What we see now is that the ability for people to be innovative and to make real10400:09:54,740 --> 00:09:59,960solutions in their workforce is really democratized in a way that it never was before.10500:10:00,260 --> 00:10:05,930And by giving people the education, the tools to do that, everyone can drive innovation.10600:10:05,930 --> 00:10:08,389And it wasn't it just wasn't quite that way before.10700:10:08,390 --> 00:10:14,270But I think we're going to see this emerge out of these sort of copilot paradigm that we see coming out now.10800:10:14,270 --> 00:10:17,300And as an institution where we want innovation everywhere.10900:10:17,570 --> 00:10:22,520Uh, we we can have some level of that, and it is to the benefit of everyone, but it lets all the11000:10:22,720 --> 00:10:29,710brain power and collective expertise we have here at UTMB manifest in tools that people can actually build and create and bring to life.11100:10:30,760 --> 00:10:39,639That's great. Well, you know, I've seen articles in different places talking about how AI is going to eliminate the workforce.11200:10:39,640 --> 00:10:47,260That it's going to eliminate COVID, for instance. Uh, some people say that will radiologists won't be needed... will just be needed.11300:10:48,130 --> 00:10:52,420Do you think I will replace our help to traditional health care workforce?11400:10:52,810 --> 00:10:55,810I think it'll I think it'll help. I think some of our roles will evolve.11500:10:55,960 --> 00:11:04,360Um, but I think the comforting thing to clinicians should be that we're a far way from having a discussion about needing less doctors.11600:11:04,750 --> 00:11:07,479I think that's the only discussion we've really had over many years,11700:11:07,480 --> 00:11:12,940is we need more and more and more and more doctors, and we can never seem to get ahead of the curve of having enough.11800:11:13,390 --> 00:11:17,710And, I think the reality is that we're going at we're going to need AI to even have enough,11900:11:17,890 --> 00:11:24,790much less have too many, because what people want of them is much more access than they've ever had before.12000:11:25,150 --> 00:11:28,180And, so even as a pathologist, as a radiologist, what you're going to see, I think,12100:11:28,180 --> 00:11:35,620is a higher volume of diagnostic testing, more data available to people, more information to reason about.12200:11:35,830 --> 00:11:39,910And you will require AI to kind of keep abreast of that volume.12300:11:40,270 --> 00:11:44,290And ultimately, that's what patients expect when they say, I want to ask a question.12400:11:44,290 --> 00:11:48,429Now I need to get an answer now. Um, we'll only be able to get there with AI.12500:11:48,430 --> 00:11:55,570I really don't think we're going to face contraction just because the demand is almost limitless for what doctors provide.12600:11:56,640 --> 00:11:58,770Well, thank you, Dr. McCaffrey, for being here.12700:11:59,100 --> 00:12:06,450I know that you're going to really allow UTMB to be on the cutting edge of what AI can do for our patient care mission,12800:12:06,750 --> 00:12:11,220our research mission, our education mission, and our innovation mission.12900:12:11,460 --> 00:12:14,220And, we look forward to seeing all the great things that you're going to be13000:12:14,220 --> 00:12:19,140able to do and allow UTMB to be the be the leader globally and locally on how,13100:12:19,140 --> 00:12:23,130AI gets deployed in an academic medical center. Thank you for being here.13200:12:23,160 --> 00:12:26,910Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you for tuning in to The Pulse.13300:12:27,390 --> 00:12:32,640We hope you've gained valuable insights, discover new perspectives, and feel inspired by the stories shared today.13400:12:33,900 --> 00:12:38,730Please join us for future episodes to stay informed and connected right here on The Pulse.
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Dr. Peter McCaffrey, MD, MS, FCAP, serves as UTMB Health’s Chief Artificial Intelligence (AI) Officer, where he leads AI strategy and implementation, advancing patient care and operational efficiency across UTMB. Board-certified in Clinical Pathology and Clinical Informatics, Dr. McCaffrey is also co-chair of the University of Texas System AI Collaborative, a statewide initiative guiding AI innovation and strategy for Texas’ health institutions.
Dr. McCaffrey brings extensive experience from a unique blend of academic and industry backgrounds. He completed his medical training at Johns Hopkins, with residency and chief residency at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, and went on to Stanford University for graduate training in AI and Biomedical Data Science.
Before UTMB, he was a Biodesign fellow at the Texas Medical Center Innovation Factory, where he collaborated with venture incubators. He later co-founded Pragma Biosciences, an AI-focused biotechnology company, which has raised nearly $20 million in venture funding and partners with industry leaders like GSK and Merck on AI-driven drug discovery.
At UTMB since 2018, Dr. McCaffrey has pioneered projects like AI-enhanced automation of COVID-19 diagnostics, nationally recognized by America's Essential Hospitals, and developed Texas’ most advanced laboratory for Single Cell and Pharmacogenomics. His vision and expertise are helping UTMB expand its leadership and innovation in medical AI.