New AI has spread across the healthcare landscape so quickly that consumers – patients and providers alike – can be forgiven if they’re uncertain what and whom to trust. 

To address that problem, and to facilitate confidence in a range of emerging technologies, the Consumer Technology Association recently released a standard “that identifies the core requirements and baseline to determine trustworthy AI solutions in health care.”

According to the association, more than 60 healthcare and technology organizations participated in developing the ANSI-accredited standard, which is the second in a series of standards focused on implementing medical and health care solutions built on AI.

“AI is providing solutions – from diagnosing diseases to advanced remote care options – for some of health care’s most pressing challenges,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CTA, at the time of the standard’s release. “As the U.S. health care system faces clinician shortages, chronic conditions and a deadly pandemic, it’s critical patients and health care professionals trust how these tools are developed and their intended uses.”

In particular, the standard, dubbed ANSI/CTA-2090, "The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Health Care: Trustworthiness, ” is based on three “pillars” of trust: 

Human Trust, which the consortium described as being “built upon human interaction, the ability to easily explain, user experience and levels of autonomy of the AI solution;” 

Technical Trust, which involves “the technical execution of the design and training of an AI system” but can also include considerations such as data quality and security; and 

Regulatory Trust, which “is gained through compliance by industry based upon clear laws and regulations.”

"Establishing these pillars of trust represents a step forward in the use of AI in healthcare," said Pat Baird, regulatory head of global software standards at Philips and co-chair of the working group. "AI can help caregivers spend less time with computers, and more time with patients. In order to get there, we realized that different approaches are needed to gain the trust of different populations and AI-enabled solutions need to benefit our customers, patients and society as a whole. Collaboration across the healthcare ecosystem is essential to establish trust.

Among some of the participants are: AdvaMed, America's Health Insurance Plans, athenahealth, BlackBerry, Connected Health Initiative, and the Joint Commission.