AI is transforming patient care—and cardiologists have a critical role to play

He noted that cardiology societies increasingly recognize AI's growing role in healthcare. However, he added, it is important for the physicians, not the AI, to still be in control.

Physicians need to lead AI adoption

While the administration is pushing to accelerate clinical AI adoption, Tariq said SCAI’s response emphasizes that physicians must guide how the technology is implemented and governed. He stressed that physicians bring a unique clinical acumen to looking at how to best treat patients with different combinations of disease states, symptoms, quality of lif, and comorbidities. Many times judgments are based on prior experience from treating patients and interacting with them, rather than just looking at data on that patient. Also, humans are ultimately responsible for clinical decision-making, a task algorithms are unable to replicate.

“I don't think this is a reason to be fearful. I think this is a great opportunity,” he said. “I think what we are trying to advocate is that physicians need to lead this opportunity because we sense the responsibility. It's not just a prompt that is given to us.”

He said clinicians approach care with a mindset focused on individual patients and the consequences of clinical decisions.

“Even if you were to prompt an AI and then run a simulation a million times, that's not the same as seeing the impact on one patient,” Tariq said.

SCAI also told federal officials it is willing to work closely with agencies developing national AI strategies.

“I think one of the things that we wanted to make clear in that statement is that we want to be a resource for HHS, for CMS, and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health,” Tariq said.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health is one of several federal initiatives investing heavily in healthcare innovation, including AI-based tools that could help expand access to specialty care in underserved areas.

“There are incredibly exciting initiatives out there,” Tariq said. “We also recognize that there are a lot of counties without cardiologists, without interventional cardiologists, where we can substantially improve care. We just want to make sure that those efforts are done responsibly and executed with clinicians helping lead the efforts, not b being left out of the loop.”

Liability questions remain unresolved with AI

As a physician and attorney, Tariq said one of the most complex issues surrounding clinical AI is legal liability if an AI system contributes to a clinical error.

“This is going to be an emerging conversation,” he said, noting that SCAI is working on a specific document about this very issue.

Tariq explained that the concept of professional self-governance has historically guided how courts approach medical liability.

“The aspect of professional societies and professional self-governance is something that I learned in law school a long, long time ago,” he said. “It is a privilege that is given because the courts do not understand all facets of medicine, so they give deference to professional societies to govern themselves.”

However, under current frameworks, clinicians remain responsible for decisions made using AI tools. He said conversations may change to how this liability could be shifted to the technology companies that create and train the AI. With liability falling solely on the physicians who uses it, that reinforces the need for physician leadership in developing AI governance frameworks.

AI could help increase patient engagement with physicians

Despite the legal uncertainties, Tariq believes AI will ultimately increase patient engagement with physicians rather than replace them. He said patients and already starting to use large language models like Grok, ChatGPT and Claude to ask medical questions. In fact, it reminds him of when patients first started browsing health information online and bringing it to their physicians.

“I think that the wave is just beginning again,” Tariq added. “We saw this with WebMD, we saw this with Dr. Google, and we need to be able to understand what that means from a clinical setting. That is actually going to be really important.”

He said it is really exciting to see the use of this new generation AI by patients, who can be empowered by the information and allows them to be more involved in their healthcare with informed decision making. 

Read more about the comments from SCAI and ACC to HHS