Social Challenges in Resource Allocation through AI across the Healthcare Ecosystem

The objective of this research is to systematically understand how AI tools can augment the healthcare system through better resource allocations within an aging population. More importantly, the team hopes to study how the healthcare system can navigate the social challenges created by such AI tools and, more broadly, the policy and governance implications of the broad-based implementation of AI tools within healthcare. This overarching research grant will consist of four pillars in four contexts where AI can be used in healthcare, and studies of each pillar will collectively answer these research objectives through specific research questions.

The results from these studies will have significant academic and practical impacts. In terms of academic impact, this program offers a rare opportunity to study the complete life cycle of healthcare AI systems – from development to implementation – and from behavioural and organizational perspectives. Most prior studies focus on specific parts of the cycle, but this research examines the healthcare AI system’s full life cycle, contributing to healthcare implementation science by integrating AI within social contexts, providing behavioural insights, extending organizational theories, and offering empirical evidence of AI's benefits for healthcare providers.