Help or Harm? How CHAI is Mitigating the Risk of AI in Healthcare

With great power comes great responsibility and in healthcare,
those words may have never held more meaning than they do with
the advent of artificial intelligence. AI most certainly has the
power to transform healthcare, and those in the industry working
to develop and use it have an immense responsibility to shape
principles that ensure these technologies help, not harm.

The Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) was created with a mission to
be the trusted source of responsible AI in health that serves
all. CHAI was founded in early 2021 by a small group of industry
stakeholders and has quickly grown to now encompass more than
2,500 participants representing health systems, technology
providers, government agencies, advocacy groups and others.

Dr. Brian Anderson is one of CHAI’s co-founders and now serves as
its first CEO. Before CHAI, Dr. Anderson was the Chief Digital
Health Physician at MITRE, a nonprofit corporation that manages
federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs)
supporting various U.S. government agencies. At MITRE he led
research and development efforts across major strategic
initiatives in digital health alongside industry partners and the
U. S. Government.

Prior to MITRE, Dr. Anderson led the Informatics and Network
Medicine Division at athenahealth. He has also served on several
national, and international, health information technology
committees in partnership with the Office of the National
Coordinator (ONC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD).

In this episode of Healthcare is Hard, Keith Figlioli spoke with
Dr. Anderson about the origins of CHAI, its intended role
ensuring responsible use of AI in healthcare, and the complex
issues already emerging as the industry navigates the early
stages of AI adoption.

Some of the topics they discussed include:



Aligning AI with values. Dr. Anderson admits there’s
General agreement around principles like transparency, safety,
privacy, and reliability when it comes to responsible use of
AI. But says the industry needs a clearer definition for what
that actually means at a technical level for the people and
companies writing code. He says vendors fundamentally can’t do
this on their own, which is why independent entities with
appropriate skills, tooling, technology, and data are needed.


AI assurance. Nearly every other industry has
independent organizations that test and evaluate products. From
the star rating system for automotive safety, to the stickers
validating consumer electronics, we take these rating systems
and their existence for granted. Healthcare AI does not yet
have a similar system, but that’s what Dr. Anderson eventually
wants CHAI to be known for.


Giving everyone a voice. Being inclusive is fundamental
to CHAI’s mission and Dr. Anderson stresses that everyone’s
perspective is legitimate, especially since healthcare AI is
such a new space where no one has definitive answers. He
recognizes that listening to every perspective is critical in
order to build AI that will serve everyone. For example, this
includes ensuring that voices from the startup community are
represented just as much, if not more than big tech.



To hear Dr. Anderson and Keith discuss these topics and more,
listen to this episode of Healthcare is Hard: A Podcast for
Insiders.