Description
AI is showing up in PM&R clinical workflows whether we are ready for it or not—through documentation tools, diagnostic support, risk scores, and care recommendations. As these tools become more common across rehabilitation and physical medicine, a critical question emerges: how do we ensure they actually make care safer, not just faster? This session features a conversation about working at the intersection of clinical practice, patient safety, and emerging technology. Timothy Hsu serves as Vice President of Industry and Emerging Technologies at the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), where he leads national efforts connecting patient safety, clinical practice, and health technology. He also serves on the steering committee of the National Academy of Medicine's Patient Safety in the Era of AI initiative. Rather than a lecture on technology, this session is designed as a dialogue about what it means to practice in an AI-enabled environment—and how patients, clinicians, and health systems can remain firmly in the driver's seat. Tim will share perspectives on responsible AI use and national safety frameworks, while the session intentionally creates space for PM&R physicians to share their own experiences—what has worked, what has not, and where concerns remain. Key topics will include how accountability is assigned when AI-supported decisions contribute to harm, how clinicians can recognize when AI meaningfully supports versus misleads their judgment, and what is at stake for patients—particularly older adults and other vulnerable populations who make up much of the PM&R patient population. Insights from this discussion will help surface real-world challenges and inform future safety and governance efforts across the field. Participants are encouraged to bring their questions, examples, and lessons learned to ensure the conversation reflects frontline clinical reality.
Learning Objectives
After completing this live activity, the participant should be able to:
- Articulate what "safe" AI use looks like in a PM&R clinical encounter from the patient's perspective as well as from the system's.
- Identify which patient populations in PM&R may be most vulnerable to harm from AI tools that were not designed or validated for them.
- Recognize when an AI-generated recommendation may not reflect the complexity or functional goals of a rehabilitation patient.
- Describe examples of ways AI tools currently showing up in PM&R practice may help patient safety and/or introduce unintended potential risks to patient safety.
Accreditation Statement
The American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPM&R) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
CME Credit Designation
The American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPM&R) designates this live activityfor a maximum of 0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Disclosure Statement
In accordance with ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, AAPM&R requires all individuals who are in a position to affect the strategic direction of AAPM&R and/or control the content of an educational activity to disclose all financial relationships with any ineligible company within the last 24 months. The ACCME defines an “ineligible company” as any entity whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
Disclosures are made in written form prior to the start of the educational activity, and any potential conflicts of interest that exist are mitigated prior to the start of the activity through AAPM&R’s Conflict of Interest Disclosure and Resolution Policy Process. Individuals in a position to affect the strategic direction of AAPM&R and/or control content and their disclosed financial relationships are listed below.
No other planners, faculty, or individuals in control of content disclosed any relevant financial relationships.
Principle Faculty
Name, Credential(s): Company Name, Nature of financial relationship;
Mooyeon Oh-Park MD MHCM, FAAPMR - Nothing to disclose
Timothy Hsu MHSA - Nothing to disclose
AAPM&R Medical Education Committee
Name, Credential(s): Company Name, Nature of financial relationship
Rachel Brakke Holman, MD - Nothing to Disclose
Sarah M. Eickmeyer, MD - Nothing to Disclose
Chelsea D. Frost, MD, MS - Nothing to Disclose
David J. Haustein, MBA,MD,MBA - Relationships to Disclose
Sarah K. Hwang, MD - Nothing to Disclose
Ravi E. Kasi, MD - Nothing to Disclose
Caroline Pupke, DO - Nothing to Disclose
Monica E. Rho, MD - Nothing to Disclose
McCasey R. Smith, MD - Nothing to Disclose
Jennifer A. Soo Hoo, MD - Nothing to Disclose
Brionn K. Tonkin, MD - Nothing to Disclose
Stephanie Tow, MD - Nothing to Disclose
Justin L. Weppner, DO - Nothing to Disclose
Alexandra G. Wolfe, DO - Nothing to Disclose
FDA Disclosures
All faculty members for this activity have disclosed they do not intend to discuss or demonstrate any pharmaceutical or medical device for which FDA clearance has not been approved.