Recognizing the potential of augmented and artificial intelligence (AI) to greatly impact patient care and physician interests, the Texas Medical Association has announced the addition of 10 expert consultants to its Committee on Health Information Technology (HIT).
Patients may already be consulting AI technologies like ChatGPT for health-related issues, and payers employ AI, largely without transparency, for a range of purposes, including automating prior authorization, customer support, and claims processing. Seeing the risk such uses could pose to physician practices and patient care, and building on the work of the Committee on HIT, TMA’s House of Delegates voted at TexMed 2022 to adopt principles guiding the use of augmented intelligence in health care, saying such tools should “be developed transparently.”
Supporting that goal, in June TMA President G. Ray Callas called for qualified physicians to serve as consultants to the committee. The following 10 members have been selected:
- Jawahar Jagarapu, MD, Dallas, neonatal-perinatal medicine
- John Jordan, MD, Austin, clinical informatics/preventive medicine
- Todd Tibbetts, MD, San Antonio, diagnostic radiology
- Rehan Ahmed, MD, Bellaire, ophthalmology
- Harvey Castro, MD, Flower Mound, emergency medicine
- Dan McCoy, MD, Fredericksburg, dermatology
- Kimberly Monday, MD, Houston, neurology
- Alvaro Moreira, MD, San Antonio, pediatrics
- R. Todd Richwine, DO, Fort Worth, family medicine
- Simran Sedani, MD, Temple, internal medicine
The committee, chaired by Austin internist Manish Naik, MD, will be working toward developing resources to be featured on TMA’s new augmented intelligence webpage, including tools to help physicians evaluate AI. Physicians can also gain AI insight from committee consultants at Business of Medicine Conference, Oct. 10-12 in San Antonio.
Questions can be directed to Shannon Vogel, TMA associate vice president of health information technology. Find more resources on TMA’s new augmented intelligence webpage.
Last Updated On
June 11, 2025
Originally Published On
August 26, 2024