Why 42,000 doctors are learning AI: Inside NBEMS’s 6-month course with global faculty from Harvard and Mayo Clinic

The course is open to medical professionals across specialities and is voluntary in nature. Despite not being mandatory, it has seen overwhelming participation, reflecting doctors’ strong interest in understanding AI-driven technologies. Registrations have come from across India, with a small number of participants of Indian origin based overseas.

According to Dr Sheth, the curriculum has been structured to address the multi-dimensional role of AI in healthcare. Training modules cover clinical applications, hospital operations, healthcare administration, and future innovations, including areas such as genomics and data-driven medicine. “Artificial intelligence will increasingly shape the future of medicine, and doctors must be prepared to engage with it in the right way,” he said.

A key focus of the programme is ethical and professional responsibility. Dr Sheth emphasised that while AI can enhance efficiency and accuracy, it should never replace the human elements of medicine. “Empathy, compassion, and human touch remain central to patient care. Doctors must also understand ethical guidelines and avoid becoming overly dependent on AI tools,” he noted.

The course will feature 20 lectures delivered over six months by a diverse faculty, including leading clinicians and technology experts who have worked to integrate AI into medical practice. Dr Sheth said the inaugural lecture was delivered by renowned gastroenterologist Dr D Nageshwar Reddy, who will also deliver the programme’s tenth lecture.

International experts from institutions such as the University of London, Arizona State University, Harvard University, Mayo Clinic, premier Indian academic institutions including the Indian Institutes of Technology, and other global centres are also part of the faculty.

Long-term vision of high-quality healthcare

At the end of the programme, participating doctors will receive a certificate after completing assessments and providing feedback. NBEMS plans to use this feedback to refine the course further and potentially expand it into speciality-specific AI training modules in the future.

Dr Sheth said the long-term vision is to ensure that doctors who are trained in AI are better equipped to deliver high-quality care. “A doctor enabled with artificial intelligence training will ultimately be better positioned than one who is not, while still preserving the core values of medical practice,” he said.

The initiative marks one of the largest organised efforts in India to formally introduce artificial intelligence education into mainstream medical training, signalling a shift towards technology-enabled yet ethically grounded healthcare.

Welcoming the move, Dr Suvrankar Datta, an AI researcher and radiologist who previously worked with AIIMS Delhi, said the training is crucial because if doctors are not trained to critically engage with AI today.

“We risk creating a generation of clinicians who overtrust technology without understanding its limitations. Courses like this are therefore essential—not to promote AI hype, but to build safe, ethical, and clinically grounded adoption of AI in Indian healthcare,” he said.

“What we are increasingly witnessing today is residents, interns, and even young doctors using AI tools without adequate awareness of their limitations. Models such as ChatGPT or Gemini often provide answers with very high confidence. While they may be correct in 80–90 per cent of commonly encountered scenarios, they present those responses as if they are correct 100 per cent of the time,” he said.

Informed use of AI

He said a confident but incorrect AI-generated response, if trusted blindly, can directly impact clinical decision-making and patient safety. “At present, there is a significant gap in AI literacy among doctors—not just in how to use AI, but in how to question it, verify it, and understand its failure modes. AI education should not be about replacing clinical reasoning, but about strengthening it through informed, cautious, and responsible use,” he added.

Dr Rohan Krishnan, an orthopaedic surgeon from Delhi, who participated in the inaugural session, said as a medical educator, it is essential to understand and engage with emerging technologies that will shape the future of healthcare. AI literacy is no longer optional in medical education, and participating in this initiative reflects a commitment to preparing doctors for the realities of modern clinical practice.

He said AI tools assist in early disease detection, risk prediction, and personalised treatment planning, leading to improved patient outcomes. “In radiology, pathology, and cardiology, AI enhances diagnostic accuracy and reduces human error. It also helps automate routine tasks such as documentation, scheduling, and report generation, allowing doctors to spend more time with patients,” he added.