He came back to Alabama to become a doctor. He is leaving with something the medical world is just now beginning to understand. Stevan Fairburn, M.D., M.S., recently became the first student to earn a Master of Science in AI in Medicine from the UAB Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation, all while simultaneously completing medical school, stepping toward the operating room with one foot in clinical care and the other in the future of healthcare.
For Fairburn, medicine was never just about science. It was about service. Showing up in the moment is what matters most. It's about helping people navigate fear, uncertainty, pain, and survival. Artificial intelligence (AI) simply became another way to do that more effectively. Through thoughtful and more practical means.
As healthcare systems across the world wrestle with burnout, workforce shortages, information overload, and rapidly evolving technology, Fairburn represents something larger than a single graduate from a new MS program. He is a new kind of physician emerging at the intersection of medicine, technology, and human connection, and you could be next.
Fast Facts: Stevan Fairburn, M.D., M.S.
- Grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
- Attended United States Air Force Academy
- Biochemistry major — no coding
- First MS graduate in AI in Medicine at UAB
- General surgery residency, Wake Forest
- Excited to apply AI in the surgical setting
Fast Facts: MS in AI in Medicine — Fall semester applications due Aug. 1
- Hands-on AI Training — Build practical skills in artificial intelligence for healthcare.
- Medicine + Technology — Learn at the intersection of clinical care and innovation.
- Research Opportunities — Work on real-world healthcare challenges with expert faculty.
- Career Ready — Prepare for roles in imaging, diagnostics, precision medicine, and AI healthcare.
- Industry Connections — Access UAB’s network of healthcare and technology partners.
From Tuscaloosa to Colorado
Fairburn grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but his path to medicine was anything but direct.
Rather than staying close to attend the college in Alabama, he traveled west to Colorado Springs to attend the United States Air Force Academy. At that time, he planned to become a fighter pilot. Engineering fascinated him. Aviation inspired him. The mission felt meaningful.
After arriving at the Academy, something more persistent began to surface.
“I realized I really enjoyed service-oriented missions,” Fairburn said. “Flying a jet did not fill my cup in that way.”
Medicine, on the other hand, did. More specifically, surgery did. The idea of becoming an Air Force surgeon offered something uniquely compelling to him. It was the opportunity to serve at both the national and deeply personal levels. He would be able protect people on a broad scale while also meeting individual patients in some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.
He switched his focus to biochemistry and prepared for medical school. Eventually, he returned home to Alabama to attend medical school at the UAB Heersink School of Medicine.
At the time, he had no idea a single flyer taped to a wall would fundamentally reshape his future.
“I was convinced when I went to the Air Force Academy that I was going to fly and be an engineer,” he says. “I can safely say I am neither of those things now.”
“I realized I really enjoyed service-oriented missions.”
The flyer on the wall
It was 2023, and AI had suddenly become impossible to ignore.
AI chats had gained traction just months earlier. Headlines exploded with predictions about the future. Some people viewed AI as revolutionary, while others found it daunting. Most people, Fairburn included, were simply curious.
“I was listening to podcasts and hearing everybody talks about AI,” he said. “But I did not really understand what was happening underneath the surface.”
Then one day, riding an elevator at UAB, he noticed a flyer advertising a course on AI in medicine through the newly established Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation.
“I was like, this is really interesting stuff,” he recalls. “I would love to learn more about it. So, I thought maybe I would just take a class and see.”
He completed the AI in Medicine Graduate Certificate program while balancing the already demanding medical school workload. Fifteen additional credit hours. Long nights. Extra projects. Additional research.
“The thing that I would work the extra hour on, that was AI,” he says. “That was what drove me.”
The deeper he went, the more he recognized a familiar feeling from childhood. He compared it to sitting on the floor building with Legos, fascinated not just by the final structure but by the architecture underneath it. The systems. The logic. The invisible framework that determines how everything functions.
“Understanding why an answer is being generated the way it is being generated, I think that stuff is fascinating,” he said. “That is when I realized this is something I could really see myself researching, teaching, and building around.”
What intrigued him most was not the fantasy of AI replacing physicians. In fact, he believes the opposite.
“You cannot take the clinician out of medicine,” Fairburn said. “AI is not going to replace doctors. But it can help them empathize more with patients. It can give them back the extra five minutes to really connect with the person sitting in front of them.”
Going beyond the certificate
By the time Fairburn completed the certificate program, UAB had officially launched the full Master of Science in AI in Medicine.
Unexpectedly, he was already halfway there. The credits aligned and the curriculum matched. The opportunity was suddenly a real possibility.
There was only one more step: convincing medical school leadership to let him pursue a second graduate degree simultaneously.
“I basically went to them and said, ‘Hey, I am already halfway through this. Are they going to make me stop now?” he said, laughing.
Fortunately, it was approved!
What followed became one of the most intellectually transformative experiences of his education.
The program moved beyond headlines and hype into the mechanics of how artificial intelligence actually works. Fairburn studied neural networks, model architecture, implementation science, responsible deployment, bias evaluation, and healthcare integration. He learned the difference between an AI system that sounds convincing and one that can safely function in a clinical environment where lives are at stake.
Most importantly, he learned how physicians can shape the future of AI rather than simply react to it.
His capstone project reflected exactly where his clinical interests and technological interests intersected. Fairburn developed an AI model to give clinicians real-time access to their documents at the point of care.
“AI in Medicine bridges where I am going with where the technology is going. That is the whole point of the degree.”
The three levels of AI fluency
Ask Fairburn what meaningful AI adoption actually looks like in medicine, and he does not immediately jump into technical jargon or futuristic predictions.
Instead, he explains it in terms of what he calls three levels of AI fluency.
The first level is the most accessible and, in many ways, the most important because it removes fear from the equation.
Level One: Think With It
At the foundational level, AI becomes a thinking partner.
This is where professionals use tools like language models to brainstorm ideas, organize thoughts, summarize information, explore possibilities, and challenge assumptions. No coding background is required. No technical expertise is necessary. The goal is simply learning how to ask better questions and interact with the technology intentionally.
For clinicians, this could mean using AI to outline patient education materials, simplify research findings, draft presentations, organize workflows, or think through complex problems from multiple angles.
“It is really about augmenting human thinking,” Fairburn explained. “You are still the expert. You are still making the decisions. AI just helps you process and explore faster.”
For many people, this first level becomes the realization that AI is not reserved for engineers or computer scientists. It is a practical tool that can support everyday work across healthcare, education, research, and administration.
Level Two: Build With It
The second level moves from conversation into creation.
At this stage, users begin leveraging AI to generate outputs that traditionally required specialized technical skills. They might ask AI to write code, analyze datasets, automate repetitive tasks, build prototypes, create dashboards, or teach them entirely new workflows.
This is where the relationship between the clinician and the technologist begins to merge.
“You do not necessarily have to become a software engineer,” Fairburn said. “But you do have to understand enough to guide the technology responsibly and evaluate whether what it is producing is actually useful.”
For healthcare professionals, this level opens enormous possibilities. Physicians can prototype tools for patient care. Researchers can accelerate data analysis. Administrators can automate operational bottlenecks. Educators can personalize learning experiences.
“Instead of waiting for innovation to arrive from somewhere else, professionals can begin actively shaping it themselves.”
Level Three: Orchestrate With It
The most advanced level is orchestration.
Here, AI becomes part of interconnected systems that manage workflows across multiple tools, platforms, and information streams. These systems can synthesize data, organize documents, automate communication pathways, and support real-time decision-making.
This is the emerging world of agentic AI workflows. Most importantly, Fairburn does not describe this level as replacing human expertise. He describes it as elevating human capacity.
“I have yet to find a place where AI replaces deep work,” he said. “Its best use is when it brings the deep work more to your fingertips. The time spent searching is no longer needed. The time is spent strategizing.”
In medicine, orchestration could mean reducing documentation burden, streamlining clinical workflows, surfacing critical patient information faster, or helping care teams navigate increasingly overwhelming volumes of data.
“The goal is not to remove people from healthcare. The goal is to remove friction so healthcare professionals can focus more fully on judgment, empathy, communication, and care.”
The extra five minutes
This fall, Fairburn will begin his general surgery residency at Wake Forest while serving on active duty in the United States Air Force.
He knows he will encounter institutions with varying levels of AI adoption and very different comfort levels with the technology. Some environments will be highly innovative. Others might remain cautious or skeptical.
He sees that challenge as part of his role moving forward.
“UAB, through the Institute, is one of the most forward-thinking environments in AI and medicine,” he said. “Part of my job now is becoming a translator. Understanding where people are in their comfort level and helping them see where AI can meaningfully reduce pain points.”
For Fairburn, the conversation always comes back to the patient.
Medicine is experiencing a burnout crisis. Physicians are overwhelmed by documentation, administrative complexity, inbox management, and increasing productivity pressures. Many entered medicine because they wanted to care for people deeply and personally, yet the system often pulls them away from the bedside and toward the computer screen.
Fairburn believes AI can help reverse that trajectory if implemented responsibly.
“When AI frees up five or 10 minutes for a clinician, I want that time spent in the room,” he said. “Not scheduling another patient. Actually connecting with the person in front of you.”
As a future surgeon, he understands exactly how meaningful those moments can become. Patients entering surgery are often frightened, overwhelmed, and vulnerable. Sometimes the most important thing a physician can offer is not speed or efficiency, but presence.
AI, he believes, can help make room for that presence again.
The first of many
Fairburn will spend the next decade in operating rooms, military hospitals, and clinical training environments while continuing to navigate a field evolving almost daily. AI will continue changing and innovating. Healthcare will continue adapting. New tools will emerge. Old assumptions will disappear.
Fairburn no longer sees AI as something happening to medicine from the outside.
He sees it as something physicians themselves must help shape. He is still learning, experimenting, and asking questions. However, he is no longer the medical student who almost walked past a flyer on a wall.
He became the first graduate of a degree program that did not even exist a few years earlier. A program built around the belief that the future of medicine will require clinicians who understand both people and technology, both compassion and innovation.
Ready to be next?
UAB Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation
Master of Science in AI in Medicine
The MS in AI in Medicine at the UAB Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation is now accepting students. The program is designed for healthcare professionals, clinicians, researchers, and innovators interested in shaping the future of medicine through responsible and human-centered AI integration. No computer science background is required. Only curiosity, creativity, and a willingness to learn.
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