Some Pennsylvania state lawmakers in Harrisburg want to regulate the use of artificial intelligence by health care providers, arguing patients deserve to know how health care companies are using the new technology.<\/p>\n
The rapidly-evolving technology has been increasingly utilized by physicians and insurance providers to assist with data management, billing, notetaking and even determining care options for patients. Meanwhile, some AI advocates say Pittsburgh can be the future Silicon Valley of AI if the city and state government embrace it.<\/p>\n
But physician and lawmaker Arvind Venkat, who represents McCandless in the state House, says AI must not replace people as the key decision-maker in determining a patient\u2019s care. He\u2019s leading a bipartisan group of five lawmakers who are planning to introduce a bill<\/a> they say will create vital guardrails on AI usage by health care providers.<\/p>\n \u201cPatients and the public deserve transparency when a novel technology is being used in health care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Venkat said AI can be useful for care providers \u2014 assisting with documentation, improving diagnostic accuracy, developing treatment plans, handling billing, filing insurance claims \u2014 but without regulation, AI could threaten the \u201cdoctor-patient relationship.\u201d He added that AI can reinforce biases<\/a> seen in the insurance and health care industries.<\/p>\n \u201cArtificial intelligence is a tool that can be an important addition to health care, but it shouldn’t substitute for what is done by human decision-makers on an individualized basis with patients,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Venkat said their bill will be partially modeled off a bill he introduced in 2023<\/a> that would have regulated AI usage by insurance companies. He said he expects bipartisan support when he formally introduces his bill.<\/p>\n AI advocates, including Pittsburgh-based AI Strike Team\u2019s Joanna Doven, argue AI improves efficiency, improving patient care outcomes. She\u2019s spearheading Pittsburgh\u2019s AI Summit<\/a>, scheduled for September, with attendees including Gov. Josh Shapiro and Senator David McCormick.<\/p>\n Doven cited Pittsburgh-based AI company Abridge as an example of AI innovating the health care industry while speaking at the Pennsylvania Press Club on Monday. They develop notetaking software for clinicians and doctors.<\/p>\n Abridge\u2019s software is used by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Allegheny Health Network and Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia, according to a spokesperson.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are doing amazing things in health care, essentially giving doctors and nurses more time to be with their patients by automating very mundane tasks,\u201d Doven said.<\/p>\n No law regulating AI in health care currently exists at the federal level, but some states have passed their own, including California and Colorado<\/a>. More than 250 bills targeting AI in health<\/a> care have been proposed in state legislatures across the country.<\/p>\n The Food and Drug Administration has in total approved more than 1,000<\/a> medical devices that use AI. They also recently announced they will begin using AI to approve drugs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other AI regulatory laws have targeted deepfakes, AI-generated images and videos of people that can be indistinguishable from reality. Pennsylvania lawmakers passed a deepfake pornography ban<\/a> last year and this year passed another bill that would ban use of deepfakes in political ads<\/a>.<\/p>\n