Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite, Founding Director of the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University, has been appointed to the U.S. National Academy of Medicine’s steering group for Patient Safety in the Era of AI initiative, announced today. He is one of only two panel members from outside the U.S.

The National Academy of Medicine has formed the steering group to drive action related to strategically engaging the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to significantly improve patient safety and prevent harm across the U.S. health system.

Professor Braithwaite said he was honoured by the appointment.

“To make healthcare safer, we need to combine the power of AI with smarter technology-based systems that learn and improve over time, while fostering a culture that values technological advancement, fairness and staff and patient wellbeing at every level of care,” he said.

“The needs of patients, families, health care workers must always come first”, he said.

In making the announcement, the National Academy of Medicine said To Err is Human, a seminal Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Medicine publication, helped ignite the national patient safety movement 25 years ago and sparked decades of work aimed at reducing harm.

However, as much as meaningful progress has been made, the complexity of health care and new technologies have created additional occasions for harm to occur. AI in health care introduces powerful new tools to bridge this gap, but realising its transformative potential requires overcoming the barriers that have prevented longstanding, system-wide progress.

Professor Braithwaite is a global leader in patient safety and healthcare improvement, whose work on health system reform has involved 152 countries. He is Founding Director of the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Australia’s largest health services research group and one of the largest of its kind in the world.

In the top two per cent of the world’s scientists, and with a 20-year association with the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua), including as President and Board Chair, he is currently serving as Chair of ISQua’s International Academy of Quality and Safety (IAQS).

His recent work focuses on using AI and big data to speed up evidence-based care and create learning health systems. By combining technology with cultural change and effective governance, he contributes to the advancement of systems to prevent harm and improve outcomes for patients everywhere.

A recent study found that nearly one in four hospitalised patients (23.6%) in the U.S. experienced at least one adverse event during their stay, and 6.8% of all admissions involved preventable harm.

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