As development of artificial intelligence has exploded over the past year, both federal agencies and international organizations are beginning to get the ball rolling on regulations for AI’s use in healthcare.
Although President Biden and other officials have made statements over the past few months both supporting and cautioning about the use of AI in healthcare, talk is now giving way to actual proposals on how to regulate the new technology.
It is expected that Biden will sign an executive order this week on how to regulate AI use in healthcare, ahead of an international summit of world leaders about the topic, according to reports.
Overall, the growing consensus, including among AI’s biggest proponents, is that, within healthcare, tools could make a huge dent in the administrative burden caregivers and other staff members face, which would not only make their jobs easier and more focused on care but also would help alleviate the ongoing staffing crisis within the industry.
Several US states already have introduced legislation regarding AI in healthcare, including California, Illinois and Texas.
The World Health Organization recently outlined recommendations for using AI in healthcare.
Key considerations include improving access to AI-enabled tools, accuracy of the models and transparency of the system — what patient and resident data are being collected, and who is gaining access to them — the WHO noted in a release earlier this month.
“AI technologies — including large language models — are being rapidly deployed, sometimes without a full understanding of how they may perform,” the WHO warned in a statement. “When using health data, AI systems could have access to sensitive personal information, necessitating robust legal and regulatory frameworks for safeguarding privacy, security, and integrity, which this publication [WHO’s regulatory recommendations] aims to help set up and maintain.”
Earlier this year, the US Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology proposed rules requiring electronic health records that use AI to provide information on how the tech works.
