As new technologies advance within healthcare, the US Food and Drug Administration has had to keep pace with the regulatory landscape.
To that end, the FDA has announced a new advisory committee for digital health technologies.
The committee will be formed in the coming months and begin meeting in 2024. It will help guide the FDA on a number of tech topics relevant to senior care, including artificial intelligence, remote patient monitoring and virtual reality.
AI, in particular, has already been used for software related to risk profiles and medication management, and could even be used for the discovery of new drug chemical combinations.
“We’re excited to have a committee of experts throughout the field who can help ensure our regulation of these exciting tools maintains an appropriate pace,” said Troy Tazbaz, director of the FDA’s Digital Health Center of Excellence, in a statement announcing the new committee Wednesday. “Many of these technologies are novel and tend to rapidly change; it’s our duty to seek as much knowledge on them as possible as we determine and implement appropriate regulation to encourage innovation while protecting public health.”
The committee will be composed of nine voting members, including a chairperson, and will include temporary members depending on the topic, the agency stated.
In recent months, the FDA has adjusted regulations for health tech such as sanitizing robots, creating an entirely new classification for cleaning tools that rely on UV lights.
The FDA also has tried to rein in AI or other tools that have bypassed their clearance, either because the tech was marketing for uses the FDA did not approve them for or releasing new versions software too quickly before the updates can be evaluated. One heart monitoring company, iRhythm, received a warning from the FDA earlier this year, for changing their algorithm without notifying the agency.
