AOIA digital health initiative offers upcoming webinars on adopting AI technologies responsibly

Across the country, osteopathic physicians, residents and students are using transformative digital health technologies as they pursue their potential to exemplify osteopathic principles while improving patient outcomes and the practice of medicine.

By partnering with technology and taking an osteopathic approach that focuses on humanizing health care, leading DOs are leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality, remote patient monitoring and other innovations to provide a more accurate realization of whole-person care and remove the administrative burdens that erode patient-doctor relationships.

The AOIA’s Digital Health Innovation Community of Practice

The American Osteopathic Information Association (AOIA)’s Digital Health Innovation Community of Practice (DHI CoP) has been on the crest of the wave of these sweeping changes, serving as the osteopathic profession’s hub for digital health collaboration, thought leadership and networking. Many critical advances have been accomplished since May, the last time the DHI CoP was featured in The DO, including the establishment of a DHI CoP newsletter, a leadership body, ongoing thought leadership opportunities and educational programming.

Recognizing their expertise on the national stage, the DHI CoP Steering Committee leadership has been invited to speak at HLTH24, one of the largest global digital health events, later this month. This is just one of many strategic partnerships built by AOIA to amplify the DHI CoP’s mission of advancing osteopathic voices in digital health and innovation. DHI CoP has also prioritized and partnered with the Digital Medical Society to ensure standardized and objective evaluation of digital health tools through the DiMe Seal of Approval.

Establishing leadership and strategic priorities

The Digital Health Innovation (DHI) Steering Committee, a newly formed leadership body, now guides the strategic direction of the DHI Community of Practice (CoP). This committee assembles prominent osteopathic experts working with cutting-edge health care technology from across the nation. AOIA’s DHI Steering Committee has identified the following areas of focus at the intersection of digital health and osteopathic distinction: education and training; the application of digital health technology in practice; and policy.

Education and collaboration initiatives

The DHI CoP has made strong investments in education, networking and collaboration. If you were at OMED in San Antonio this year, you might have had the opportunity to engage in one of the seven thought leadership sessions at the AOIA’s Innovation Hub or network with over 300 registered DHI CoP members who attended our networking event. Beyond OMED, the DHI CoP has lined up quarterly webinars through May 2025 that are focused on the intersection of digital health topics with an emphasis on osteopathic principles. 

Registration for these webinars is currently open, and we encourage you to visit the DHI CoP website to learn more about these foundational educational events.

Upcoming webinar series

The first DHI CoP quarterly webinar, taking place on Nov. 4 at 4:30 p.m. CT, will explore practical use cases for key emerging technologies such as LLM and wearables as an entry point for osteopathic physicians who want to use digital health innovations but might not know how. The remaining DHI quarterly events will discuss modernizing osteopathic medicine with the next frontier of DOs. We will go over ways to ensure our patients’ privacy, safety and security as we adopt new technology and explore a deeper dive into AI’s impact on health care.

The DHI CoP quarterly webinars directly align with the DHI Steering Committee strategic priorities and more education and training opportunities are in the pipeline for the CoP to leverage in their daily lives.

Future goals and projects

The DHI CoP aims to address some of the osteopathic profession’s most pressing digital health questions and challenges. Our goal is to alleviate concerns about the disruption of traditional practice, seamlessly integrating these core osteopathic principles with cutting-edge innovative tools which improve their application and practice in today’s rapidly evolving health care environment.

With the leadership of the DHI Steering Committee, the DHI CoP has begun to explore frameworks and guardrails for emerging technology in the profession. At the same time, we are brainstorming ways to improve accessibility, awareness and understanding with an emphasis on the osteopathic principles.

The DHI Steering Committee will embark on several deliverables, but a foundational piece is the development of a toolkit that outlines key principles aligning with the osteopathic viewpoint and provides context to help DOs address key questions when discussing emerging technologies with decision makers, including policy makers and hospital administrators.

Additionally, a future goal of the AOIA DHI initiative is to leverage the DiMe Seal of Approval to highlight vetted digital health software products that prioritize or enhance humanizing and whole-person health care.

“We are showing the world what makes osteopathic medicine unique with our effective convergence of osteopathic principles and technology,” says Cole Zanetti, DO, DHI CoP Steering Committee co-chair and chief health informatics officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Be the voice that helps us continue to shape the future.

Register and get involved—what are you waiting for?

Related reading:

How DOs can be at the forefront of the digital health revolution

The future of AI in medicine is osteopathic