From classrooms to clinics, artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the way future doctors learn and practice. Ravi David Yarid, DO, assistant professor of osteopathic manipulative medicine at PCOM Georgia, is exploring ways to integrate AI into osteopathic medical education, recognizing its potential to enrich both the learning experience and the practice of osteopathic medicine.
“AI isn’t a passing trend—it’s fundamentally changing how we approach medicine,” Yarid said. “The question isn’t whether AI will be used, but how we will use it.”
Yarid, who is a member of the American Osteopathic Information Association’s Digital Health Innovation Steering Committee, incorporates AI into his teaching by using tools like ChatGPT to refine lecture materials and structure information more clearly, making it easier for students to absorb. At PCOM, second-year students have access to MedMatrix, an AI-powered platform that generates unlimited case-based questions tailored to COMLEX Level 1 and 2 exams.
Unlike traditional test banks that recycle the same questions, MedMatrix continuously adapts, generating new scenarios based on student performance. Students can also upload lectures, enabling the platform to create questions tied to learning objectives, and build customized lessons and exam-style practice sessions.
“This could completely change medical education,” Yarid said. “AI evaluation could allow students to continuously demonstrate knowledge at a high level and move forward when they are truly ready—whether that means being COMLEX-ready, rotations-ready, or even lab-ready.”
The system also helps students develop deeper understanding by presenting similar concepts in different contexts. One case might involve a patient with shortness of breath, while another focuses on chest pain, but both reinforce the same diagnostic reasoning.
“MedMatrix has significantly enhanced my study habits,” said Madelyn France (DO ’28). “This tool fosters collaboration by allowing peers to work through shared questions, promoting verbalizing and teaching concepts to deepen understanding, and helps me think critically, make connections between topics and prepare for real clinical challenges.”
By constantly adjusting to each student’s strengths and weaknesses, MedMatrix supports learning beyond rote memorization. “AI allows us to meet people where they are and help them grow from there,” Yarid said.
This flexibility could also expand access to medical education, allowing nontraditional students—like working parents—to progress at their own pace from wherever they are.
Beyond the classroom, AI presents opportunities to strengthen osteopathic medicine in ways that align with its foundational principles.
AI can rapidly analyze vast amounts of medical data. “But you are still the physician,” Yarid emphasized. “AI can assist in decision-making, but it doesn’t replace your ability to think critically, evaluate patients holistically or apply osteopathic principles.”
By optimizing workflows and providing real-time analysis of patient records, AI can free physicians to focus on the human elements of care, from palpation to patient connection.
“AI can streamline diagnostics and support decision-making, but palpation—our ability to assess patients through touch—remains irreplaceable,” Yarid said. “With its emphasis on holistic care, osteopathic medicine is perfectly positioned to lead this transformation.”
Yarid anticipates a future where AI automatically integrates osteopathic principles into every lecture, regardless of the subject. Whether students are studying cardiovascular physiology, musculoskeletal anatomy or neurology, AI could continually reinforce how the body’s systems connect to each other.
“AI can help ensure osteopathic principles and practice maintains the foundation of all osteopathic education, as well as keeps osteopathic manipulative medicine connected and at the forefront of health care,” Yarid said. “This is a powerful way to reconnect osteopathic education to its roots, showing students the holistic interconnectedness of the body every time they learn something new.”
Yarid encourages students to engage with AI tools early, participate in AI-focused discussions, and advocate for responsible integration into medical training.
“We have an opportunity to shape AI’s role in health care and ensure it aligns with our values as osteopathic physicians,” he said. “This is a pivotal moment in medical education. We have to decide now whether we’ll adapt and lead—or be left behind.”
PCOM Georgia has been serving students and the community for 20 years as a branch campus of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM), a private, not-for-profit, accredited institution of higher education established in 1899. Located in Suwanee (Gwinnett County), PCOM Georgia offers doctoral degrees in osteopathic medicine, pharmacy and physical therapy. Graduate degrees are offered in biomedical sciences, medical laboratory science and physician assistant studies. The campus joins PCOM South Georgia in Moultrie in helping to meet the healthcare needs of the state. Emphasizing "a whole person" approach to care, PCOM Georgia focuses on educational excellence, interprofessional education and service to the community. For more information, visit pcom.edu or call 678-225-7500. The campus is also home to the Georgia Osteopathic Care Center, an osteopathic manipulative medicine clinic, which is open to the public by appointment. For more information, visit pcomgeorgiahealth.org.
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