Lecture Title
AI in Healthcare: From Promise to Practice.
Lecture Summary
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is recognised as a transformative force in healthcare, with the potential to improve diagnostics, personalise treatments, streamline operations, and enhance population health. However, integrating AI raises challenges around clinical reliability, data privacy, algorithmic bias, regulation, and workforce readiness. Many applications remain experimental, with a gap between proof-of-concept and real-world impact.
This lecture will explore both the benefits and pitfalls of AI in healthcare, using local and international examples. It examines the socio-technical realities of embedding AI into clinical and operational workflows, alongside ethical and legal issues related to data transparency and accountability. Emerging risks such as automation bias, data inequities, and reliance on opaque ‘black-box’ systems are discussed. The lecture also considers pathways for responsible, scalable and inclusive AI adoption.
Moving beyond the hype, this presentation will offer a balanced, evidence-informed view of AI’s role in healthcare, highlighting where it delivers value, where it falls short and what is needed to translate promise into practice.
Speaker biography
Professor Usman Iqbal is a global leader in Digital Health and Health Informatics with a background in Pharmacy, Healthcare Management, and Health Informatics. He is Associate Faculty at Ariadne Labs (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) and Adjunct at UNSW and QUT. Professor Iqbal has secured over AUD 4 million in research funding, focusing on improving healthcare quality and patient safety through technology, including AI-driven solutions like the NHMRC-funded TRIBOT study. He is a Fellow of multiple professional bodies and serves on advisory panels for WHO and other organisations. His work spans digital health innovation, real-world data, and global health systems strengthening, with collaborations across academia, industry and international organisations.