The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) unveiled its artificial intelligence (AI) strategy on Thursday, which will integrate a five-pillar approach to the technology across all HHS components.
The department’s AI strategy builds upon AI directives from the White House and guidance from the Office of Management and Budget, while focusing on the five pillars. The pillars include governance and risk management, infrastructure and platform design for user needs, developing the workforce and reducing burdens, foster health research and reproducibility, and modernize care and public health delivery.
HHS said the strategy is a first step, and it does not encompass the department’s complete AI vision.
“Here at HHS, we’re all in. For too long, our Department has been bogged down by bureaucracy and busy-work; even the most productive public servants are mired in paperwork and process,” Jim O’Neill, deputy secretary of HHS, wrote in the strategy.
“It is time to tear down these barriers to progress and unite in our use of technology to Make America Healthy Again. We will harness AI technologies to streamline operations and enhance support for care delivery throughout the entire health care industry. We call it OneHHS,” he added.
Those efforts will be led by Clark Minor, acting chief artificial intelligence officer at HHS, who said that the strategy “is about harnessing AI to empower our workforce and drive innovation across the Department.”
Specifically, the strategy will aim to expand access to shared tools and data, accelerate drug and biological approvals, claim adjudications, and grant review throughout the department.
The OneHHS – described as an “AI-integrated Commons” – will prioritize American-made technologies when building shared infrastructure and favor open-source tools, open standards, and transparent frameworks, except in cases where privacy, national security, or proprietary constraints require more restricted approaches.
“The idea is to develop a common suite of secure computing resources, scalable data repositories, model hosting services, evaluation testbeds, and orchestration tools for AI, so that individual teams do not have to reinvent the wheel for each new AI project,” the strategy explains.
In fiscal year (FY) 2024, HHS documented 271 active or planned AI use cases. The department expects that number to increase by 70% when its inventory of use cases for FY 2025 is complete.
To further AI use cases, HHS’s preliminary AI maturity assessment, as described under the strategy, outlined a staged process for evaluating and scaling AI use cases.
Early efforts are focused on assessing expected returns and improving information sharing through AI councils. HHS leaders will review piloted and newly deployed systems for technical performance, business value, cost-effectiveness, and strategic alignment, modifying or retiring underperforming approaches.
Leadership will also oversee regular evaluations for deployed use cases and target best-in-class solutions for broader department-wide scaling.
In safety-related efforts, HHS said it will also establish standardized risk practices for high-impact AI, including pre-deployment testing, impact assessments, independent review, monitoring, and “safe termination if non-compliant.”
A new internal AI Governance Board made up of senior leaders from HHS components will also meet twice a year to address “IT policy, cybersecurity, data governance and procurement.” A second group, comprised of senior leaders responsible for AI-related efforts, will work with the governance board to “synthesize top-down direction” with “bottom-up innovation to implement HHS’s vision for AI.”
To modernize healthcare, HHS said it would promote AI-enabled tools for decision support, early warning, risk stratification, and outreach, while coordinating division roles to streamline efforts and unify messaging. It also backed continuous AI monitoring to bolster accountability and guide strategic decisions.
The strategy has received support from several Republican lawmakers who praised its focus on bolstering innovation and AI use cases.
“Artificial intelligence has enormous potential to strengthen our nation’s health-care system. I’m encouraged that HHS is taking a thoughtful, outcomes-driven approach that prioritizes transparency, rigorous risk management, public trust, and respect for Americans’ health data,” said Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., who chaired the House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and has long been a proponent of AI.