Mary Shaw outlines AI teaching, ethics and curriculum changes at Northwell presentation

Mary Shaw, a librarian at Norwalk Hospital (part of Northwell Health), described her personal and professional "artificial intelligence journey" and detailed plans to train clinicians and librarians in the ethical, practical use of AI in clinical education.

Shaw framed the talk as an introduction to why she engaged with AI, the connections she has built across departments and her plans for future teaching. "There are no learning objectives for this, so you can take a deep cleansing breath," she told attendees, signaling a low-pressure session while laying out concrete next steps.

Shaw said she has worked in libraries for nearly a quarter-century and has long advocated for health equity, diversity and wellness. She described presenting at the National Association for Health Sciences Libraries conference and being accepted in 2021 as the only nonclinical scholar in the Patricia Tietjen, MD Teaching Academy, where her capstone applied active and adult learning theories to library instruction.

Drawing on that experience, Shaw said she led a Gateway webinar in December 2023 on AI and librarianship aimed at academic librarians and has attended health care AI grand rounds and other workshops to learn how AI tools are being used in research and teaching. She compiled bibliographies and reviewed both promotional and business-focused coverage of AI to understand how the systems are set up and funded.

Shaw said an executive committee on artificial intelligence invited input on equity, diversity and ethical use; she submitted a five-page paper and a bibliography and later supplied a shorter summary when requested. She described quarterly meetings with information technology and Graduate Medical Education (GME) to encourage thoughtful AI use across clinical education.

As a near-term training product, Shaw described a four-class faculty development capstone designed to train internal medicine faculty in using AI while preserving residents' critical thinking, and said the capstone will be connected to Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requirements. She also said a group project she helped lead will train medical students on effective use of AI in history-taking.

Shaw said the program will be tailored for different audiences — hospitals, medical schools and teaching academies — and that she and colleagues have delivered sessions across eastern Long Island and Northwell Hudson Valley. She presented sample materials that list AI tools for research and media production and said trainers have adjusted content to meet learner needs.

On governance and ethics, Shaw warned that AI adoption must respect existing contracts and copyright. "You can't just, you also can't violate copyright," she said, advising participants not to "blindly pour articles and books into AI." She urged users to prioritize transparency about data sources and to center the people served by clinical education and library services.

Shaw disclosed a practical change she made using an AI assistant: "Full disclosure, I used Copilot to change the curriculum I developed for a 5 day boot camp into a 2 day experience," explaining the compression responded to reduced teaching time and that she also asked Copilot to provide alternative deliverable choices for residents.

Looking ahead, Shaw said she hopes to roll out the capstone as a faculty-development series, collaborate on rebuilding an inclusivity academy that will include AI tools for culturally sensitive care, submit instructional infographics for just-in-time teaching apps and work with a Northwell North research team on resident training.

She closed by urging continued critical thinking and curiosity about AI tools and thanked the audience.