15. AI at the Crossroads: A Surgeon’s National Security View of AI Innovation in Healthcare, featuring Dr. Hassan Tetteh

In this episode, Rolf Taylor (Cobb Institute) interviews renowned cardiac surgeon and AI expert Dr. Hassan Tetteh about ways that artificial intelligence is reshaping healthcare, research, and the workforce, and it's origins in military applications. 

Drawing on his 25-year naval career, surgical background, and work with the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, Dr. Tetteh discusses AI’s potential to expand access, improve productivity, and address health inequities—as well as the need for strategic governance to manage risks and bias.

The conversation highlights practical examples—like wearable devices, large language models (LLMs), and plain language translation for underserved communities—and urges thoughtful integration of AI so it can safely empower patients, clinicians, and health systems.

Over the next few weeks, we are featuring interviews with speakers from our AI symposium, which the Cobb Institute recently convened at the NMA Annual Convention. Titled Code, Context, & Care - Artificial Intelligence at the Crossroads of Healthcare, Research, & Workforce Development - the symposium explores the role of AI in shaping scientific direction and operational decision-making. 

The discussions highlight AI’s great potential to share information, support research continuity, streamline processes, and uncover new insights, as well as its risks—such as reinforcing existing patterns of bias when built on limited data, or restricting the scope of inquiry through automated content filtering. 

Dr. Hassan Tetteh is a retired US Navy Captain and Associate Professor of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and adjunct faculty at Howard University College of Medicine. He a much published author, including most recently the book “Smarter Healthcare with AI”

The symposium also examines how evolving guidelines around language and terminology are shaping health-related research, influencing how studies are designed, interpreted, and communicated. Speakers considered 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. Transparency, thoughtful integration, and institutional readiness remain critical to ensuring AI serves the broad needs of the research and healthcare communities. 

You can review the full symposium program - and a video recording  - on the Cobb Institute website using this link: https://www.thecobbinstitute.org/the-cobb-institute-annual-lecture-symposium-2025 

The Cobb Institute thanks our partners and sponsors for supporting this event, including Amgen, BlackDoctor.org, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering, and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.

Copyright: W.Montague Cobb Institute 2025.