Human Oversight in the Era of AI-Enabled Trial Matching

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more integrated into clinical trial matching, human oversight remains an important part of the process. In an interview with Targeted Oncology^TM, Shaalan Beg, MD, MBA, FASCO, of ConcertAI, discusses how agentic AI can support clinical trial screening without replacing the role of oncologists, research staff, and clinical trial coordinators.

AI tools can help organize and synthesize information from disparate parts of a patient’s medical record, allowing research teams to more efficiently identify patients who may be appropriate for a study. By ranking potential trial candidates and bringing relevant information together, these tools can reduce the time spent manually reviewing records and help coordinators focus their efforts where they are most likely to have an impact.

Beg emphasizes that AI is not currently positioned to independently determine trial eligibility or manage the consent process for most oncology studies. Human review, patient discussions, and clinical judgment remain essential. Instead, the value of AI lies in making those human activities more efficient by reducing the time and effort required to gather and interpret information. By improving the overall efficiency of the screening process while maintaining appropriate human oversight, agentic AI may help practices identify more eligible patients and expand access to clinical trials.