Columbus, OH – In a new report—A Healthcare World Reimagined: How Big Government Threatens Healthcare AI and What to Do About It—that is no April Fools’ Day joke, The Buckeye Institute outlines policy solutions and regulatory changes lawmakers should address to capitalize on the benefits of artificial intelligence to improve healthcare services. 

“Artificial intelligence, even in its fledgling stage, already shows great promise for improving healthcare services for physicians, hospital systems, and their patients,” write The Buckeye Institute authors Rea S. Hederman Jr. and Logan Kolas. “Unfortunately, federal and state policymakers have signaled their interest in pursuing heavy-handed regulatory rules that risk short-circuiting many of the improvements that AI has to offer.”

In the report, Hederman and Kolas note the benefits of artificial intelligence, which can: 

• Sort, manage, and analyze vast sums of data far faster and more accurately than humans;
• Help doctors make better diagnoses and prognoses for patients; and 
• By reducing the time needed for complex analytics and prognostications, AI frees doctors and nurses to spend more time with patients.

Heavy-handed and harmful regulations, outlined in the report, put these benefits at risk. Hederman and Kolas offer policy solutions that lawmakers should adopt to ensure doctors, nurses, and patients realize the benefits of AI, including: 

• Presuming innovation innocent in regulatory codes will shift the burden of proof and persuasion onto regulators trying to control technological development.
• Restoring Congressional oversight will give small businesses and startups a seat at the table to discuss AI security and privacy procedures.
• Relying on “soft law” to guide AI policy will avoid the strong arm of government regulation, help structure accountability, and guide behavior in emerging technologies.
• Building an AI regulatory sandbox will help AI innovators and users safely develop technologies in a supervised testing environment.
• Promoting interstate collaboration on privacy rules will identify regulatory solutions that minimize tedious and costly compliance obligations.

The Buckeye Institute’s Rea S. Hederman Jr., vice president of policy and an expert in healthcare policy, and Logan Kolas, economic policy analyst and an expert in technology and data privacy policy, co-authored A Healthcare World Reimagined. 

# # #