Recommendations for Safe Implementation of AI in Real World Clinical Setting: Study Finds - Video

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more prevalent in health care, organizations and clinicians must take steps to ensure its safe implementation and use in real-world clinical settings, according to an article co-written by Dean Sittig, PhD, professor with McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston and Hardeep Singh, MD, MPH, professor at Baylor College of Medicine.

The guidance was published in the

Journal of the American Medical Association.

Drawing from expert opinion, literature reviews, and experiences with health IT use and safety assessment, Sittig and Singh developed a pragmatic approach for health care organizations and clinicians to monitor and manage AI systems.

Some of the recommended actions for health care organizations are listed below:

· Review guidance published in high-quality, peer-reviewed journals and conduct rigorous real-world testing to confirm AI’s safety and effectiveness.

· Establish dedicated committees with multidisciplinary experts to oversee AI system deployment and ensure adherence to safety protocols. Committee members should meet regularly to review requests for new AI applications, consider their safety and effectiveness before implementing them, and develop processes to monitor their performance.

· Formally train clinicians on AI usage and risk, but also be transparent with patients when AI is part of their care decisions. This transparency is key to building trust and confidence in AI’s role in health care.

· Maintain a detailed inventory of AI systems and regularly evaluate them to identify and mitigate any risks.

· Develop procedures to turn off AI systems should they malfunction, ensuring smooth transitions back to manual processes.

“Implementing AI into clinical settings should be a shared responsibility among health care providers, AI developers, and electronic health record vendors to protect patients,” Sittig said. “By working together, we can build trust and promote the safe adoption of AI in health care.”

Reference: Sittig DF, Singh H. Recommendations to Ensure Safety of AI in Real-World Clinical Care. JAMA. Published online November 27, 2024. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.24598