Over the next four years, researchers from The University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine will begin gathering stories from the community, including physicians in rural areas, to improve health care and attract more doctors on the Neighbor Islands with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
The project is funded by a $1.1 million from the American Medical Association’s Transforming Lifelong Learning Through Precision Education Grant Program, which in total awarded $12 million nationwide to advance technology and strengthen the physician workforce, it was announced Tuesday.
Leading the initiative, Project HANAI (Health and Nurturing Artificial Intelligence), is Kelsea Kanoho Hosoda, the medical school’s Native Hawaiian Center of Excellence principal investigator and director. For this program, she will oversee a core team of five people and is looking to expand.
“It just seemed like a really great marriage of Artificial Intelligence, as well as providing opportunities for education in the state for our physician trainees. And so, the call was put out there, people within the medical school suggested that we write a grant for it, … [and I] thought that it would be a great opportunity to instill cultural values into the AI and just try it out,” Hosoda said of the application process.
In terms of execution, she said the next six months will look like “bringing people together to collect data and talk story.”
“It’s an investment into our future and will support trainees who are going to serve our communities of most need, which is really what the funding is going to, as well as supporting those physicians who are already practicing,” Hosoda said.
Born and raised on Oʻahu, she holds a Ph.D. in information computer sciences from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where she studied natural language processing and learned how to use AI to improve search engine algorithms for the Hawaiian language.
“For the AI, we plan to create our own localized model – we’re not pulling ChatGPT off the shelf – but getting it trained specifically on all of those stories that we’re collecting,” she said. “AI can be seen as a scary tool, but it's an opportunity to amplify voices that are not usually heard and create efficiencies.”
People will be involved in the project, too, she said, adding that the “culturally responsive AI” will be used more as "a guiding tool."
The overall goal, she says, is developing individualized learning plans for JABSOM’s physician trainees, and then beyond.
“We're approaching it differently and curating how we're teaching the AI,” Hosoda said. “I think that is why the AMA was very excited for our project because it has this opportunity to be a pilot project that can serve all of our rural communities throughout the nation. … More locally, I think that this could go on to any system that is using AI.
“For us, the intention to pursue rural practice in Hawaiʻi is really our benchmark of success in these four years, right? I don't think we're going to be able to to increase the number of physicians in rural practice within four years, just because the training process takes so long," she continued. "The fact that people have that desire and intention to go to those types of communities and have it at the forefront of their mind is really what we're after in this first four years.”
For more information about Project HANAI, formerly named “Developing Culturally Responsive AI for Rural Health: Utilizing Precision Education and Precision Coaching to Strengthen Hawaii’s Rural Physician Workforce,” visit nhcoe.jabsom.hawaii.edu or contact khosoda@hawaii.edu.
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Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros can be reached at kelsey@alohastatedaily.com.
