Everyone’s got a platform to vet your AI. At least that’s how it seemed at this week’s HLTH health tech conference in Las Vegas, Ruth found. Absent government regulation of many AI tools in health care, the private sector’s filling the void. Duke Health and Avanade, a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture that is now majority owned by the latter, have the Smart AI Governance Engine to help health systems take stock of the AI they’re using. AI chipmaker Nvidia and Aidoc, a medical AI company, announced they are working on a set of standards to help AI companies understand how to build products that take into consideration how doctors work. “The point of this is, can we offer something by codifying our knowledge and understanding?” said Kimberly Powell, vice president of health care at Nvidia, who sees its forthcoming blueprint as complementary to existing standards-setting groups. A jumble of coalitions, including Microsoft’s Trustworthy and Responsible AI Network; Duke’s Health AI Partnership; VALID AI, which was originally developed out of the University of California Davis; and the Coalition for Health AI, whose members include the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins, are all vying to develop standards for health AI. Why it matters: While the Food and Drug Administration regulates AI diagnostic tools and AI within medical devices, not all health care AI falls within its jurisdiction. HHS’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is starting to regulate AI within electronic medical records and its Office for Civil Rights now prohibits health systems from using discriminatory algorithms. Still, there are big gaps. No one regulates AI that takes down doctors’ notes or AI chatbots that interact with patients. What’s next? HHS is expected to lay out its strategy for regulating AI in health care by January 2025. Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy Micky Tripathi and HHS Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm have said that quality assurance labs will be part of the plan.
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