Facilitating Responsible Governance of Healthcare AI Tools

Third, because the success of AI tools depends on the adopting organization’s ability to support them through vetting and monitoring, the federal government should establish standards for organizational readiness and responsibility to use healthcare AI tools, as well as for the tools themselves. [...] The wisest course now is for the federal government to foster a consensus-building process that brings experts together to create national consensus standards and processes for evaluating proposed uses of AI tools. [...] Through its operation of and certification processes for Medicare, Medicaid, the Veterans Affairs Health System, and other health programs, Congress and federal agencies can require that participating hospitals and clinics have a process for vetting any AI tool that affects patient care before deployment and a plan for monitoring it afterwards. [...] Fund a network of AI assurance labs to develop consensus-based standards and ensure that lower-resourced healthcare organizations have access to necessary expertise and infrastructure to evaluate AI tools. [...] Ensure that relevant federal agencies, including but not limited to CMS, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Food and Drug Administration, have clear grants of authority to adopt standards for all types of healthcare AI and require entities within their purview to adhere to them.