The American Medical Association has unveiled seven new principles for the development, deployment and utilization of AI in healthcare, a step closer to establishing a unified governance framework for the progress of the technology within the industry.
The AMA's outlined principles emphasize the need for extensive policies aimed at mitigating risks to both patients and physicians when using AI technologies. These new principles, according to a Nov. 28 news release from the AMA, will help to maximize the benefits of AI in healthcare while minimizing potential harms.
Key concepts within the AMA principles include:
- Oversight: The AMA supports a whole-of-government approach to implementing governance policies addressing risks associated with healthcare AI.
- Transparency: The AMA advocates for legal mandates detailing key characteristics and information in the design, development and deployment processes of AI, including addressing potential sources of inequity.
- Disclosure and documentation: The principles call for adequate disclosure and documentation when AI directly affects patient care, access, medical decision-making, communications or medical records.
- Generative AI: To manage risks associated with generative AI, the AMA urges healthcare organizations to develop and adopt policies addressing potential negative impacts before its adoption and use.
- Privacy and security: Under these principles, AI developers are urged to design systems with privacy in mind, and organizations must implement safeguards to ensure responsible handling of personal information.
- Bias mitigation: The AMA said it advocates for proactive identification and mitigation of bias in AI algorithms to promote a fair, inclusive and discrimination-free healthcare system.
- Liability: AMA said it will continue to advocate for limitations on physician liability related to the use of AI-enabled technologies, aligning with existing legal approaches to medical liability.
Furthermore, the principles outlined by the AMA also encompass situations where payors utilize AI and algorithmic decision-making processes to establish coverage limits, make claim determinations, and shape benefit designs.
The AMA said when payors are using AI, they must ensure that the use of automated decision-making systems does not impede access to necessary care or systematically deny care to specific demographic groups.