Following the White House’s Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, on December 13, 2023, the White House spotlighted that 28 healthcare payors and providers intend to implement and adhere to voluntary commitments for the safe, secure and trustworthy development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare. The commitments by healthcare providers and payors follow those of 15 AI companies to develop AI models responsibly.

IN DEPTH

The signatory companies, as part of the initiative led and organized by the Coalition for Health AI, aligned around the FAVES principle—namely, that AI should lead to healthcare outcomes that are fair, appropriate, valid, effective and safe. These companies committed to:

• Informing users when they receive content that is largely AI-generated and not reviewed or edited by people
• Adhering to a risk management framework for using applications powered by foundation models
• Pledging to investigate and develop valuable uses of AI responsibly, including creating solutions that advance health equity, expand access to care, create affordable care, coordinate to improve outcomes, reduce clinician burnout and improve patients’ experience

The White House noted that the use of AI-enabled tools for clinical decisions requires proper oversight, including appropriate testing, risk mitigation and human oversight. The White House further noted that, if entities are able to mitigate risks (e.g., gender or racial bias, or costly errors when used as clinical decision tools), AI carries enormous benefits to patients, doctors and hospital staff.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Privacy: The White House noted that AI’s ability to collect and infer new information from different data points could create privacy risks for patients
• Efficiency: The White House acknowledged that AI could help doctors analyze images more quickly and effectively, streamline drug development, and streamline and improve patient administrative processes, including completing patient forms
• Equity and Accessibility: While AI has the potential to positively impact healthcare outcomes for patients, as well as improve the lives of healthcare providers, the White House emphasized the need to place equity and accessibility at the front and center of AI development

The White House acknowledged these commitments are a critical step in society’s effort to advance AI for the health and well-being of Americans, and it expressed hope that more private-sector companies will join these commitments in the weeks ahead.

Companies that develop, purchase or implement AI-enabled technology for their own healthcare-related use cases should consider implementing the FAVES principle into their AI governance framework and company best practices, as well as ongoing development and deployment efforts.