Millions of Americans are seeing AI-integrated tools in their doctor’s offices and the trend is set to continue.
Tampa General Hospital, a nonprofit health system, utilizes AI tools to monitor operations and track patient vitals. Using a tool to monitor patients for sepsis, the hospital has reportedly saved more than 400 lives since its inception in 2022. It’s also cut wait times for MRIs and streamlined operations.
Across the country states like New Jersey, Utah, Connecticut and Pennsylvania lead in AI adoption in hospitals, according to an Oxford University Press study.
However, the growing use of AI in health care settings has some states searching for guardrails. Colorado became the first state to enact a comprehensive law around AI, banning the technology from making consequential decisions in health care.
In Florida, there are no rules or requirements around AI in health care. Tampa General created its own governance board to fill the gap.
“There's no playbook, right? We’re really trying to figure this out and be as intentional as possible around the work,” said Dr. Nishit Patel, chief medical informatics officer at Tampa General.
The board is comprised of technologists, ethicists and health care workers.
"When we deploy tools like this that really have the profound ability to do something amazing, but also to do something terrible at scale, we have to be thinking about how do we evaluate these tools from a holistic framework," Patel said.
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Patel noted that all medical decisions at Tampa General are made by people, not technology.
The oversight is essential as the portfolio of AI health products explodes.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved more than 1,000 AI tools for use in health care, the majority in imaging or radiology. The rapid development of these tools occurred in the past three years after the release of ChatGPT in 2022.
Despite the benefits, there is significant public concern about AI in health care. A Pew Research Center poll found that 60% of Americans are uncomfortable with their health care provider relying on AI.
For now, there are no set standards. A patchwork of rules and oversight governs the use of AI in health care, at individual institutions, medical groups or at state or local levels.
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On the federal level, President Donald Trump repealed former President Joe Biden’s 2023 executive order that placed guardrails on the fast-developing technology.
In early January, the FDA issued proposed recommendations for developers of AI-enabled medical devices to manage risk throughout a tool's life cycle. If approved, it would be the first at the federal level to try and manage risk in this space.
It's something Patel says will be an ongoing process as technology evolves.
"There's a new technology tool that comes out every day almost," said Dr. Jamie Weber, associate chief informatics officer at Tampa General Hospital. "And it’s really about how your team can use that tool to do the right thing for the patient."
