All units
1Foundation Module · Unit 1 of 6

AI and the Modern Physician

Establishes what artificial intelligence is, how it produces its answers, where it fails, and why clinical accountability never transfers to it. Every later unit builds on the distinction drawn here between a tool that predicts and a clinician who decides.

5 recorded lectures 5 knowledge checks

What you will be able to do

On completing this unit.

  • Separate evidence-based clinical applications of AI from media hype, and explain why AI changes clinical workflows rather than replacing clinicians.
  • Give a working definition of AI for clinical use — prediction, classification and pattern recognition — and distinguish rule-based systems, machine learning, deep learning and large language models.
  • Explain why a fluent, confident answer from a language model is statistical prediction rather than reasoning, and why fluency is not evidence of correctness.
  • Trace the input–model–output path of a clinical AI system, and account for the gap between its training data and the patient in front of you.
  • Identify data, sampling and labelling bias, and explain how algorithmic bias differs from human bias in being consistent, scalable and hidden.
  • Recognise automation bias in your own practice and apply verification, cross-checking and escalation before acting on an AI recommendation.
  • State where legal and ethical accountability sits in AI-assisted care, and describe the physician’s role as supervisor of the output rather than recipient of it.

The physician decides. AI supports.

Lectures in this unit

  1. 1AArtificial Intelligence in Medical Practice (Introduction & Myths)
  2. 1BWhat Artificial Intelligence Is — and What It Is Not
  3. 1CHow AI "Thinks" (Understanding AI Internal Mechanics for Clinical Safety)
  4. 1DBias, Error, and Risk (Understanding Risk and Ensuring Patient Safety)
  5. 1EThe Role of the Physician (Leadership, Responsibility, and Human-Centered Care)
Unit 2: What AI Can and Cannot Do in Clinical Medicine

This unit is part of the Foundation Module

Six units, 30 recorded lectures, about four hours. The Foundation Module is the entry requirement for every advanced module that follows.

Accreditation status