Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used across the care spectrum to make administrative work more efficient, draw new conclusions using large data sets, make care more accessible and personal, and more. Government agencies and organizations involved in administering healthcare and regulating the industry are also utilizing AI technology to improve the way they support patients.
Data Security
With the amount of personal health data being collected through apps and stored in electronic health records, there is a critical need to re-examine how health organizations protect that information. Well beyond being HIPAA-compliant, healthcare providers must now be cyber-aware, ensuring all of the systems they use meet data security best practices.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is working with international partners to develop standards to govern the use of AI in medical devices to ensure data privacy and security are maintained. The SW96:2023 standard was recognized by the FDA in the fall of 2023 to provide “clearly defined and consistent security standards to help evaluate possible cyber risk associated with new medical devices and emerging technology among vendors.” The standard also provides direction for manufacturers to communicate and coordinate with the healthcare industry in the identification and mitigation of security risks related to their devices. This includes providing patches and directions for applying those patches to devices utilizing software with known security risks.
Proactive Mental Health for Veterans
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is looking to AI to help stem mental health crises both within the veteran population and within the VA staff.
Caregivers have a huge administrative burden in recording all of their patient interactions. While this data is important and increasingly valuable as AI grows in use, the act of typing up notes and filling out multiple forms takes up an inordinate amount of time that could be better spent working with patients or conducting research. The frustration that arises from lost time at the bedside leads to physician burnout. One pilot of a new “ambient scribe” technology uses AI to “listen” to the clinical encounter and then summarize it into the required format for electronic health records. Physicians still review and edit the summary before it is finalized in the patient record, but the technology saves them valuable time.
For the patients, AI is proving to be a powerful tool in recognizing depression and suicide risks before an incident brings a veteran in for care. The Veterans Enhanced Treatment Program, or REACH VET, uses a predictive algorithm to identify veterans who are in the top 0.1% tier of suicide risk. Once they are identified, they are connected to targeted support. The program identifies around 6,700 veterans each month who need help.
Clinical Trial Efficiency
One of the most significant challenges in conducting clinical trials is patient recruitment – finding the people who meet the stringent trial criteria and are enthusiastic participants. To streamline the discovery of eligible participants from their vast databases, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) developed TrialGPT, a system that pulls information from patient notes to determine patient eligibility for trials. It provides a detailed explanation of eligibility for clinicians to review with its recommendations.
A group of high school students developed a solution to help the VA streamline its clinical trial selections for clinicians and veterans alike. Currently, veterans input their own data into the clinical trials database. Many times, they do not know all of the needed information, and the questions asked can be confusing. During an AI Tech Sprint competition, the team identified a way for the needed data to be pulled automatically upon login to a VA.gov portal. Veterans would be automatically matched to trials applicable to their healthcare needs or to their health history.
To learn more about government healthcare uses of AI, check out these resources.
- Cyber Threats to Medical Technology and Communication Technology Protocols (infographic) – Healthcare facilities utilize a variety of medical devices, ranging from immobile imaging machines and mobile workstations to wearable or implanted mobile devices capable of sending and receiving data over various communications protocols. The increasing cyber threats targeting the healthcare and Public Health sectors place these devices at a greater risk of disruption, degradation, and destruction.
- Artificial Intelligence & Medical Products: How CBER, CDER, CDRH, and OCP Are Working Together (white paper) – The complex and dynamic processes involved in the development, deployment, use, and maintenance of AI technologies benefit from careful management throughout the medical product life cycle. Specifically, end-to-end management of AI applications is an iterative process that starts with ideation and design and progresses through data acquisition, preparation, model development and evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and maintenance.
- The Impact of Artificial Intelligence in Health Care (white paper) – AI will radically change how things are done in the future, particularly in health care. In the face of all this publicity and hype, how can the trustee separate the wheat from the chaff? What is the role of the trustee in providing leadership and strategic guidance for the organization?
- Cybersecurity in Medical Devices: Quality System Considerations and Content of Premarket Submissions (white paper) – Cybersecurity incidents have rendered medical devices and hospital networks inoperable, disrupting the delivery of patient care across healthcare facilities in the U.S. and globally. This document provides guidance from the FDA on securing medical devices.
- IDGA’s 18th Annual Veterans Affairs Healthcare Summit (July 23-24, 2024; Alexandria, VA) – The VA finds itself at a time of rapid change and is rising to meet the challenges of the pandemic, shifting demographics, and the winding down of the Global War on Terror. This event brings together military, government, private and nonprofit healthcare sectors, academia, and consulting communities to discuss how to meet the evolving needs of veterans.
- Federal Health Summit (August 16, 2024; Reston, VA, and online) – The complexity and unique demands of the federal health sector make this an especially challenging market. This event will prepare attendees to navigate challenges.
- Defense Health Information Technology Symposium 2024 (August 20-22, 2024; Dallas, TX) – This event provides a collaborative environment for Military Health Service leadership, staff, and industry partners to discuss and reinforce new approaches, innovations, and guidelines.
- Health IT Summit (September 19, 2024; Rockville, MD) – Federal health IT leaders discuss the latest developments in public health through topics such as electronic health records (EHR) modernization, emerging tech investments, data interoperability and sharing, and more.
Stay on top of the latest innovations and policy impacting government healthcare by searching events and resources on GovWhitePapers and GovEvents.
