Hastings Center News
Hastings on the Hill: Informing Policy on AI and Health
Artificial intelligence is changing the landscape of health care delivery and biomedical research, but policymakers lament the paucity of accessible–and urgently needed–advice and evidence to make informed responsible decisions in this new fast-evolving area. Bioethics has been dedicating much attention to the appropriate governance of health-AI, but this work is often not accessible to policymakers.
To close this gap, The Hastings Center is launching “Hastings on the Hill: Informing Policy on AI in Health,” funded by the Greenwall Foundation under its “Bridging Bioethics & Policymaking Initiative,” for a project that seeks to translate bioethics research on AI in health for use by policymakers.
Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky will direct the project with co-investigators Jean-Christophe Bélisle-Pipon, a bioethicist at Simon Fraser University in Canada, and Erin D. Williams, a lawyer and bioethicist who is President and CEO of EDW Wisdom in the Washington area, with the support of Ryan Sauder and the Hastings Communications department.
The rapid implementation of health-AI raises profound policy challenges. While AI has the potential to save lives and improve health care outcomes, it also carries the risk of causing harm if not properly regulated. It is becoming increasingly challenging for policymakers–and those responsible for informing policy–to keep up with ever-evolving technological developments, implementation for various use cases, and the bioethics research meant to inform wise and responsible regulation.
This 12-month project will rely on the experience and expertise of Dr. Ravitsky and Dr. Bélisle-Pipon, who lead cutting-edge work on the bioethical aspects of health-AI, and Ms. Williams, who has spent her career as a “congressional bioethicist,” working to translate bioethics for policymakers. They will focus on two-way engagement, as policymakers try to understand different perspectives that should be considered to develop responsible regulation.
“This project is meant not only to deliver timely and urgently needed topical support to policymakers, but also to develop metrics for success,” said Dr. Ravitsky. “It is our hope that those metrics can be used by The Hastings Center and other bioethics centers and scholars when they strive for policy impact based on their own research.”