The Cobb Institute Annual Lecture & Symposium July 20, 2025

At the NMA Annual Convention & Scientific Assembly, July 19 - 23, Chicago

W. MONTAGUE COBB ANNUAL LECTURE & SYMPOSIUM
AT THE NMA CONVENTION & SCIENTIFIC ASSEMBLY, CHICAGO
Sunday July 20th, 1:45pm – 3:45pm

Code, Context, and Care: AI at the Crossroads of
Healthcare, Research, & Workforce Development

Symposium Overview

Each year at the NMA Convention & Scientific Assembly, the Cobb Institute presents their annual CME accredited (2) lecture and symposium.

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.

Learning Objectives:
  1. Analyze: How restrictions on language and terminology influence the design, interpretation, and communication of health-related research.
  2. Examine: The role of data, AI tools, and performance metrics in reducing bias in research processes and supporting responsible use of technology in health contexts.
  3. Explore: How shifts in policy and data governance affect research outcomes and assess how AI can be used to support inclusive, well-informed, and balanced scientific inquiry.

Speakers:
The Cobb Annual Symposium is noted for its luminary speakers. Closing remarks will be given by NMA President Dr. Virginia Caine. Speaker participation is currently being confirmed.

Audience:
The National Medical Association (NMA) Annual Convention and Scientific Assembly is primarily attended by African American physicians and other health professionals from across the United States. This includes a broad spectrum of medical professionals such as physicians, physician executives, podiatrists, academicians, scientists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, medical students, dietitians, administrators, and other healthcare professionals.

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