In an effort to unify the rapidly expanding set of academic activities investigating artificial intelligence (AI), Weill Cornell Medicine is launching a new AI to Advance Medicine initiative.
Encompassing a Dean’s Lecture Series and Dean’s Grant Program, the initiative aims to provide the institutional infrastructure and services needed to support AI use safely and effectively among faculty, staff and students. Additionally, a new website will spotlight the latest AI initiatives improving patient care, advancing biomedical discovery and educating future physicians—ensuring innovation remains ethical, equitable and human-centered.
The program is fueled by the institution’s CARE strategic plan — as outlined by Dr. Robert A. Harrington, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine and provost for medical affairs of Cornell University — to drive AI and data science across Weill Cornell’s three core missions of research, education and clinical care, as well as administration. It also builds on Cornell’s university-wide effort to advance leadership and education in AI while applying and evaluating it across the university.
“We are thinking about AI in medicine in a holistic way,” said Dr. Fei Wang, associate dean for AI and data science at Weill Cornell Medicine. “This is not about a single department or a single group, but about collective institutional effort and momentum.”
“AI can be overhyped, but its capabilities are increasing at an exponential pace,” said Vinay Varughese, chief information officer at Weill Cornell Medicine. “We need a unified strategy that will collectively align and drive the AI efforts emerging across the institution.”
The new AI to Advance Medicine Dean’s Lecture Series will create a forum for faculty and trainees across departments and disciplines to exchange ideas about AI, build literacy around the technology and align future efforts. While many AI-focused seminars already take place across Weill Cornell, this lecture series is not intended to replace or consolidate those efforts. Rather, it provides a shared forum that convenes faculty, trainees and staff from across disciplines in a regular, bimonthly gathering — fostering collaboration, community and sustained momentum around AI in medicine at Weill Cornell.
The inaugural lecture, “Creating an AI-Enabled Learning Health System: Now It’s Personal,” will be delivered by Dr. Peter J. Embi, professor of biomedical informatics and medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, at 12 p.m. Feb. 23 in Uris Auditorium. Dr. Embi is an internationally recognized thought leader on the intersection of medicine and biomedical informatics.
“The seminar series is a fantastic first step to really have people from different disciplines across our institution come together and think about this jointly—to share their vision,” Dr. Wang said.
The AI to Advance Medicine Dean’s Grant Program is intended to lower barriers for investigators — especially junior researchers — who are eager to pursue AI-driven research but may lack seed funding or technical support. “AI has a cost — servers, cloud resources, expertise — and that’s what the grant can help provide,” Varughese said.
Part of the skepticism around AI stems from people not understanding how to use it effectively, Varughese said. To that end, the new program will also “teach people when they can trust AI and when they should be appropriately skeptical,” he said. “We want to deploy AI into the Weill Cornell community in a safe and secure way — not control it centrally.”
The program’s launch distinguishes Weill Cornell Medicine from many other institutions, which often lack the necessary technical depth or strategic partnerships to smooth the path forward, Dr. Wang said. “Few of our peers approaching AI in such a comprehensive way,” he added. “That breadth is what makes our effort distinctive.”