Healthcare AI today: AMA drills into Trump plan, Illinois forbids AI talk therapy, Mayo Clinic speeds ahead (again)

News and views you ought to know about:

• The American Medical Association has weighed in on the White House’s AI Action Plan. For the most part, the group doesn’t refute much of the document so much as amplify some of its talking points that have ramifications for healthcare. One exception is the plan’s open disdain for “woke” AI. “A foundational principle of the plan is ensuring that AI systems are free from ideological bias and designed to pursue objective truth, which the AMA agrees is crucial for trustworthy AI in sensitive areas such as healthcare and medical research,” the association notes in a position statement posted Aug. 7. “Eliminating references to misinformation and diversity, equity and inclusion in risk management frameworks,” however, “may limit attempts to appropriately address AI bias and discrimination. Maximum effort to mitigate the risks of bias in AI systems is critical to enhance trust and improve care.”
   
  • The AMA breaks its full take into four healthcare-specific imperatives: 1.) Physicians must be full partners at every stage of the AI lifecycle. 2.) A coordinated, transparent whole-government approach is necessary. 3.) Secure data that is free from bias will enhance trust. 4.) Upskilling the physician workforce is critical to advancing adoption.
     
  • The AMA underscores that it “remains committed to guiding the ethical, safe and effective integration of AI into healthcare, ensuring that all regulatory efforts prioritize the needs and safety of patients and physicians. The approach to AI oversight and regulation must ensure safety and performance above all else, and must not be sacrificed for the sake of speed to market.” 
     
  • That last clause may be a purposeful sideswipe against President Trump’s repeated characterizations of AI development as a “race”—mainly against China—that the U.S. must “win” at practically all costs. 
     
  • Dive deeper: Read the White House’s AI Action Plan and the AMA’s full AI policy paper (released last fall). 
     
• In Illinois, mental health therapists can use AI for pretty much everything except directly counseling patients—or else. Gov. JB Pritzker signed legislation sealing that deal Aug. 4. The Wellness and Oversight for Psychological Resources Act, which passed unanimously in both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly now bans licensed behavioral-health professionals from using the technology to provide therapy or lead therapeutic decision-making. At the same time, it allows the use of AI for “supplementary support” services. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which pushed for the legislation, says the law will “protect patients from unregulated and unqualified AI products” while also “protecting the jobs of Illinois’ thousands of qualified behavioral health providers.” The department, known as IDFPR, will be watching to make sure the law also guards “vulnerable children amid rising concerns over AI chatbot use in youth mental-health services.”
   
  • The department’s head is unabashedly delighted with the development. “The people of Illinois deserve quality healthcare from real, qualified professionals and not computer programs that pull information from all corners of the internet to generate responses that harm patients,” says IDFPR Secretary Mario Treto Jr. “This legislation stands as our commitment to safeguarding the wellbeing of our residents by ensuring that mental health services are delivered by trained experts who prioritize patient care above all else.”
     
  • When suspected violations are reported, IDFPR will investigate—and can slap confirmed offenders with fines up of to $10,000, payable to IDFPR. 
     
• The Mayo Clinic pioneered the use of standardized patient records in the early 1900s. Today it’s looking to encore the major leap forward with healthcare AI. AI watchers have sensed the acclaimed institution’s ambitions ever since it launched Mayo Clinic Platform and its clinical data-analytics sidecar in 2020. But until now it kept its ambitions quite quiet. “We have always prided ourselves on being the No. 1 organization. That’s what we want to be,” Mayo Chief AI Implementation Officer Micky Tripathi, PhD, tells Minnesota Star Tribune, which can be forgiven for cheering on a fellow pillar of the North Star State. If Tripathi’s name rings a bell, it’s because Mayo scooped him up not long after he left his job as the HHS’s top technology official and acting chief AI officer. The newspaper also notes Mayo’s recent launch of healthcare’s first Nvidia-based supercomputing cluster and other firsts. “With nearly 100 AI algorithms in use and hundreds more in development,” the Star Tribune reports, “experts say Mayo likely has the broadest set of such tools of any healthcare institution.”
   
• AI doesn’t just save time—it saves lives. Umair Shah, MD, MPH, drives home the point in a roundtable podcast hosted by Microsoft Aug. 7. Shah is a former head of the Washington State Department of Health who’s now CEO of a healthcare advisory firm. Also airing out some noteworthy views in a recording of the broadcast is Gianrico Farrugia, MD, president and CEO of Mayo Clinic. “[W]e are at a point now where I believe that, for some medical conditions, it is not right to not use AI to help treat [patients],” Farrugia says. The hour-and-a-quarter discussion is led by Peter Lee, PhD, president and CEO of Microsoft Research. 
   
• Researchers in Brazil have uncovered generally positive attitudes toward AI among frontline healthcare workers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, in digging out the findings, the team also discovered “recurring cultural and linguistic barriers” as well as ethical concerns. “This is a unique study analyzing data from the first applications of generative AI in health in LMICs,” the authors state in a scientific paper published by NPJ Health Systems. “These findings offer early insights into generative AI implementation in LMIC healthcare settings and highlight both its transformative potential and the need for careful policy and contextual adaptation.” The study is available in full for free.
   
• Also worthwhile: 
   
  • AI and your healthcare data (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)
     
  • 3 ways AI helps empower healthcare clinicians (MIT Sloan School of Management)
     
  • ChatGPT glossary: 55 AI terms everyone should know (CNET) 
     
• From AIin.Healthcare’s sibling news outlets: 
   
  • Cardiovascular Business: AI company raises $55M with help from leading health systems
     
  • Radiology Business: Radiologist says specialty should harness AI to prepare for demand spikes
     
  • Health Imaging: New Lantern’s AI-enabled additions aimed at streamlining mammo and PET workflows