A group of health systems, patient safety, and technology leaders has launched an operational standard focused on patient-facing medical AI tools.
The AI Care Standard provides guidelines for safe and responsible patient-facing AI, which its developers define as “AI that communicates directly with patients or that mediates, generates, or meaningfully shapes provider-patient communications.”
The introduction of this standard comes as AI-generated patient communications through patient portals, chat, care navigation and outreach tools become increasingly common. Although these tools support patient education and have the potential to fill gaps in the patient experience, standardized safety guidance regarding this type of communication is lacking. In fact, the misuse of patient-facing AI chatbots topped ECRI’s annual list of biggest health technology dangers this year.
The standard aims to address the lack of guidance through 10 core pillars spanning safety, equity, governance, and real-world usability. Among the pillars are AI systems that appropriately respond to the psychological, emotional, and situational aspects of interactions, adapt to individual needs, build trust, and help patients understand their health status while respecting clinical boundaries.
The goal of this standard, developed by the PatientAI Collaborative cohort, is to provide clear and enforceable expectations for patient-facing AI. The standards were developed through interviews with more than 20 health system, policy, safety, patient experience, and AI leaders, structured cohort discussions, stress testing of real-world implementation and accountability scenarios, and reviews.
The collaboration also developed an AI care standards assessment framework to support standards adoption. This framework provides questions that allow healthcare organizations to assess whether their patient-facing AI meets standards.
Additionally, this framework provides a structured review of how AI-generated patient communications are designed, managed, and experienced by patients in real-world settings.
“AI is surpassing governance and oversight,” Dr. Raj Ratwani, vice president of science at MedStar Health Research Institute, said in a press release. “The AI Care Standard provides the structure and rigor needed to responsibly evaluate and implement AI in one of the highest-impact and highest-risk areas in healthcare: patient communications.”
Raj co-chairs the PatientAI Collaborative with Bridget Duffy, MD, former chief patient experience officer at Cleveland Clinic. Other members include leaders from Highmark Health, Stanford Medicine, HCA Healthcare, Hackensack Meridian Health, Patients for Patient Safety US, Vital, and MATTER.
Anuja Vaidya has been covering the healthcare industry since 2012. Currently, I am responsible for the field of virtual healthcare, including telemedicine, remote patient monitoring, and digital therapeutics.
