The Cobb Institute Annual Lecture & Symposium July 20, 2025

At the NMA CONVENTION & SCIENTIFIC ASSEMBLY, CHICAGO
Sunday July 20th, 1:45pm – 3:45pm  – Grand Ballroom North, Hilton Hotel, Chicago


CODE, CONTEXT & CARE: 

Artificial Intelligence at the Crossroads of Healthcare, Research,
& Workforce Development:
Program Overview 


 

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This symposium explores the role of AI in shaping scientific direction and operational decision-making, highlighting both its potential to support research continuity, streamline processes, and uncover new insights, as well as its risks—such as reinforcing existing patterns when built on limited data or restricting the scope of inquiry through automated content filtering. Transparency, thoughtful integration, and institutional readiness remain critical to ensuring AI serves the broad needs of the research and healthcare communities.

Key Themes:

  1. Responsible AI Integration: The symposium emphasizes ethical, transparent, and accountable use of AI in health research and care, ensuring tools serve diverse communities without reinforcing bias.
  2. Policy and Language Influence: It explores how shifting political landscapes and terminology guidelines shape research design, interpretation, and communication.
  3. Data and Methodology: Discussions address how data quality, algorithm design, and performance metrics impact research outcomes and clinical decisions.
  4. Institutional Readiness and Education: Focus is placed on preparing the health workforce through digital literacy, AI-driven education, and strategies for safe, inclusive, and effective AI adoption.
Program Focus: 
AI technologies offer the potential to enhance research by identifying gaps, analyzing large datasets, detecting patterns in clinical trials, and informing the development of research methodologies that reflect a range of experiences and contexts. At the same time, there are risks if these tools are developed using incomplete or limited data, or if their application lacks appropriate oversight. The symposium will also examine how evolving guidelines around language and terminology are shaping health-related research, influencing how studies are designed, interpreted, and communicated. Speakers will consider the ethical, methodological, and policy-related challenges of conducting research in a landscape shaped by shifting language norms and increasing use of data-driven technologies.

The Cobb Institute wishes to thank our partners and sponsors at the 2025 NMA Convention 

The Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation