Toward a responsible future: recommendations for AI-enabled clinical decision support
Authors: Labkoff Steven , Oladimeji Bilikis , Kannry Joseph , Solomonides Anthony , Leftwich Russell , Koski Eileen , Joseph Amanda L , Lopez-Gonzalez Monica , Fleisher Lee A , Nolen Kimberly , Dutta Sayon , Levy Deborah R , Price Amy , Barr Paul J , Hron Jonathan D , Lin Baihan , Srivastava Gyana , Pastor Nuria , Luque Unai Sanchez , Bui Tien Thi Thuy , Singh Reva , Williams Tayler , Weiner Mark G , Naumann Tristan , Sittig Dean F , Jackson Gretchen Purcell , Quintana Yuri 
Published: September 2024

Background

Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare settings has the potential to benefit clinical decision-making. Addressing challenges such as ensuring trustworthiness, mitigating bias, and maintaining safety is paramount. The lack of established methodologies for pre- and post-deployment evaluation of AI tools regarding crucial attributes such as transparency, performance monitoring, and adverse event reporting makes this situation challenging.

Objectives

This paper aims to make practical suggestions for creating methods, rules, and guidelines to ensure that the development, testing, supervision, and use of AI in clinical decision support (CDS) systems are done well and safely for patients.

Materials and Methods

In May 2023, the Division of Clinical Informatics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the American Medical Informatics Association co-sponsored a working group on AI in healthcare. In August 2023, there were 4 webinars on AI topics and a 2-day workshop in September 2023 for consensus-building. The event included over 200 industry stakeholders, including clinicians, software developers, academics, ethicists, attorneys, government policy experts, scientists, and patients. The goal was to identify challenges associated with the trusted use of AI-enabled CDS in medical practice. Key issues were identified, and solutions were proposed through qualitative analysis and a 4-month iterative consensus process.

Results

Our work culminated in several key recommendations: (1) building safe and trustworthy systems; (2) developing validation, verification, and certification processes for AI-CDS systems; (3) providing a means of safety monitoring and reporting at the national level; and (4) ensuring that appropriate documentation and end-user training are provided.

Discussion

AI-enabled Clinical Decision Support (AI-CDS) systems promise to revolutionize healthcare decision-making, necessitating a comprehensive framework for their development, implementation, and regulation that emphasizes trustworthiness, transparency, and safety. This framework encompasses various aspects including model training, explainability, validation, certification, monitoring, and continuous evaluation, while also addressing challenges such as data privacy, fairness, and the need for regulatory oversight to ensure responsible integration of AI into clinical workflow.

Conclusions

Achieving responsible AI-CDS systems requires a collective effort from many healthcare stakeholders. This involves implementing robust safety, monitoring, and transparency measures while fostering innovation. Future steps include testing and piloting proposed trust mechanisms, such as safety reporting protocols, and establishing best practice guidelines.