Executive order directs HHS to monitor AI safety in health care

Key takeaways:

• HHS will have a year to develop AI policies and frameworks after it establishes a task force.
• An expert told Healio the executive order’s aspects align with those of AI and ethic researchers.

President Joe Biden recently announced an executive order to establish standards for artificial intelligence safety, equity and security in health care and several other industries.

The executive order requires HHS to develop a task force, which will then have 1 year to form a safety program that will receive reports of — and act against — harmful or unsafe practices in health care that involve artificial intelligence (AI).

The task force will also ensure policies and frameworks “on responsible deployment and use of AI and AI-enabled technologies in the health and human services sector (including research and discovery, drug and device safety, health care delivery and financing and public health),” Biden said in a statement. HHS will have until Jan. 28, 2024, to form the AI task force.

According to a White House press release, the executive order also calls for:

• developers of the most powerful AI systems to share their test results and other data with the U.S. government;
• extensive and rigorous testing of AI before release;
• establishing a cybersecurity program to develop AI tools and find and repair vulnerabilities in software; and
• enhancing privacy-protecting technologies.

“These measures will ensure AI systems are safe, secure, and trustworthy before companies make them public,” the release said.

Speaking to Healio, Deepti Pandita, MD, FACP, FAMIA, chief medical information officer at University of California Irvine Health system, explained that anyone “who is developing or researching what I call ‘responsible AI’ should be looking at these aspects” of the executive order.

“The key principle for AI health care is that we always need a human in the loop,” she said. “I think everything the executive order has said is very much in keeping with what health care AI researchers and ethic folks have been saying all along.”

Pandita pointed out that an executive order like this could help institutions and organizations develop their own guidelines for AI use.

“I think having a checklist at the executive level or federal level will really aid in helping with setting up that governance process [for AI],” she said.

Panita noted that there is “a lot of excitement and buzz” about AI’s potential in health care.

“Everything is pointing toward mitigating clinician burnout by using AI to offset some of the administrative tasks that clinicians have to do, which are not really valued in terms of clinical work but need to be done because of regulatory requirements,” she said. “So that's where AI, I think, has a big role to play.”

References:

• Executive order on the safe, secure, and trustworthy development and use of artificial intelligence. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/10/30/executive-order-on-the-safe-secure-and-trustworthy-development-and-use-of-artificial-intelligence/. Published Oct. 30, 2023. Accessed Nov. 8, 2023.
• FACT SHEET: President Biden issues executive order on safe, secure, and trustworthy artificial intelligence. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/10/30/fact-sheet-president-biden-issues-executive-order-on-safe-secure-and-trustworthy-artificial-intelligence/. Published Oct. 30, 2023. Accessed Nov. 8, 2023.