Meet the instructor of our upcoming AI in Medicine Course for Clinicians
By
Asees Sandhu
Given the recent advancements in technology and its rapid evolution over the next decade, there is an urgent need for clinicians to enhance their understanding of artificial intelligence. To fill the gap in AI in Medicine courses across Canada, T-CAIREM partnered with Dr. Nihal Haque to create the Introduction to Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Course for Clinicians. Over five concise, instructor-led sessions, participants learn the essential skills needed to understand, evaluate, and responsibly integrate AI tools into their daily practice.
“The main aim of this course is to prepare clinicians to critically evaluate any AI technology they encounter in practice,” says course instructor Dr. Nihal Haque. “More importantly, the course is non-technical, so no prior knowledge of computer science or coding is required.”
Unlike other AI programs, this course was specifically designed for clinicians from the ground up. It avoids coding and technical jargon, instead using clear, clinical language to focus on what matters most at the bedside. Participants will examine issues of ethics, data privacy, and product implications with a practical lens, and learn how to assess tools, navigate approvals, design consent processes, and integrate AI responsibly into clinical workflows. Through team-based activities, they will also evaluate emerging tools such as AI scribes, gaining hands-on experience that can be applied immediately in their practice.
“We are training the clinicians of tomorrow to become savvy consumers of the explosion of AI products available to them,” says Dr. Haque.
Dr. Nihal Haque brings a patient-centred, implementation-first lens to medical AI. He holds certifications in AI in Healthcare from the Michener Institute and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, serves as a physician representative on his hospital’s AI Working Group, and is part of an interdisciplinary team that recently received funding from Canada Health Infoway to develop AI solutions that reduce healthcare worker burnout. His research spans dementia care and AI-enhanced medical education in Geriatric Medicine, and he serves on the T-CAIREM education committee as a faculty advisor of AI in medical education.
When we asked Dr. Haque how he found his path in AI, he recalled: “An amazing AI researcher at North York General Hospital, Dr. Ervin Sejdic, emailed a few years ago looking for clinician collaborators. What struck me was that he asked what I wanted to see implemented in patient care. We started with an AI-assisted delirium prevention app, and one project led to another. It is amazing how one person can be so inspirational, and Dr. Sejdic inspired my journey into AI in healthcare.”
Among other things, Dr. Haque uses AI scribes to make patient interviews more humane, allowing him to focus on building a therapeutic connection instead of staring at a screen to capture every detail. “I use AI to do preliminary literature reviews—but I always verify with a secondary source, given the risk of confabulations (hallucinations).” He is also experimenting with custom AI chatbots to teach trainees about geriatric syndromes and trialling AI to expedite the creation of summaries from progress notes as a first draft for clinician review.
When asked what advice he has for clinicians entering the field, he told us: “Implementation is 99% execution, 1% inspiration. No matter how amazing an idea is, make sure you have the right team to see it through. Get input from practising clinicians, understand their workflow, and ensure the idea actually fits the end user.”
AI is transforming medicine faster than we can imagine, and clinicians will be at the forefront of this wave. Join Dr. Haque in this course and be part of shaping how AI integrates into practice.
