Health agencies within the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Defense Department are using artificial intelligence to streamline medical care for active-duty military personnel and veterans, but they must be deliberate in their efforts to build trust in the underlying technologies and algorithms, federal officials said during the General Dynamics Information Technology’s Emerge Health 2022 event on Thursday.
During a panel discussion on health data and AI, Maj. Scott McKeithen—product manager for health analytics within the DOD’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office—and Dr. Rafael Fricks—the VA’s associate director for AI in medical imaging—discussed the possibility for AI technologies and machine learning to vastly improve patient outcomes, but also stressed the need to present new innovations in ways that can lead to broader adoption of AI technologies moving forward…
Fricks pointed to former President Donald Trump’s December 2020 executive order on promoting the use of trustworthy AI in the federal government, which included a stipulation that agencies’ AI applications “are sufficiently understandable.” The VA subsequently adopted its own departmentwide AI Strategy in September 2021, which also included increasing “veteran and stakeholder trust in AI” as one its four strategic objectives.
“We can promote adoption by having the solution be explainable, at least to the level of the competency of the person that’s expected to use or benefit from this technology,” Fricks said… Read the full article here.
