The AI Executive Order’s Impact on the Healthcare Industry

President Biden’s Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI EO) has specific impacts on the healthcare industry, according to an article on Data Privacy and Security Insider.

There are four key areas of impact on the healthcare industry as synthesized from the AI EO:

• The Health and Human Services (HHS) AI Task Force. This task force will develop a strategic plan for responsibly deploying AI and AI-enabled technologies in healthcare to include policies, frameworks, and regulatory requirements. The plan will cover research, drug and device safety, healthcare delivery, financing, and public health.
• AI Equity. The directive states that AI-enabled technologies in healthcare must incorporate equity principles and actively monitor algorithm performance to detect and mitigate discrimination and bias in existing models.
• AI Security and Privacy. The AI EO requires integrating safety, privacy, and security standards during the software development lifecycle while protecting personally identifiable information.
• AI Oversight. The EO directs the development, maintenance, and utilization of predictive and generative AI-enabled technologies in healthcare. This encompasses quality measurement, performance improvement, program integrity, benefits administration, and patient experience, and requires human oversight of AI-generated output.

The article considers these key areas as a starting point and emphasizes the need for healthcare organizations to extend their AI governance programs beyond these principles. Such regulatory entities as the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, and the Food & Drug Administration can provide guidance on AI tool usage in the healthcare industry.

Organizations must incorporate AI development and use into their compliance programs, centralizing governance to adapt to evolving state and federal regulations. This proactive approach will help mitigate risks associated with AI tools and ensure alignment with the dynamic landscape of AI regulations in healthcare.