News

HHS Publishes Ambitious AI Strategic Plan

• By John K. Waters
• 01/15/2025

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has unveiled its groundbreaking Artificial Intelligence Strategic Plan, a nearly 200-page framework designed to transform healthcare and human services through safe, ethical, and innovative applications of artificial intelligence. The HHS Artificial Intelligence Strategic Plan signals a major step forward in leveraging AI to improve equity, accessibility, and outcomes in the United States.

HHS officials describe the plan as a coordinated public-private roadmap to enhance the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare services. “Artificial intelligence has or will directly or indirectly affect every American’s healthcare and human services experience,” the agency stated, emphasizing the need for tangible benefits for patients and recipients of these services.

At its core, the plan focuses on four key objectives:

• Catalyzing Innovation: Unlocking new opportunities to improve lives through the adoption of AI technologies in healthcare and beyond.
• Promoting Trustworthy AI: Ensuring ethical and responsible AI development to minimize risks and avoid harm.
• Democratizing Access: Making AI tools and resources widely available, particularly to underserved populations.
• Empowering Workforces: Equipping healthcare professionals with AI-driven skills and fostering organizational cultures prepared to harness AI responsibly.

HHS envisions a range of transformative benefits stemming from the plan, including:

• Accelerating scientific breakthroughs to enhance quality and longevity of life.
• Developing safer and more effective medical products.
• Improving clinical outcomes through innovative healthcare delivery.
• Addressing health inequities by empowering underserved communities.
• Enhancing public health response by forecasting risks and mobilizing resources during health emergencies.

Specific initiatives cited in the plan include funding programs like NIH’s Bridge2AI and ARPA-H’s Transforming Antibiotic R&D with GenAI to Stop Emerging Threats (TARGET). These projects aim to advance medical research and develop AI tools for disease detection, drug development, and more.

While AI holds immense promise, HHS acknowledges the potential pitfalls, including biosecurity concerns, privacy risks, and algorithmic bias. The plan calls for national guidelines specific to health-related AI and proposes collaborative sandboxes to facilitate industry partnerships. It also highlights the importance of dynamic AI risk assessment tools to protect sensitive health data from adversarial attacks.

Key measures include:

• Developing secure data-sharing protocols.
• Reducing harm from predictive analytics misuse.
• Standardizing research data through efforts like NIH’s Common Data Element Repository.
• Equity and Accessibility

To ensure equitable access to AI advancements, HHS is partnering with initiatives like NIH’s AIM-AHEAD (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Consortium to Advance Health Equity and Research Diversity). The focus is on underserved populations, including rural communities and individuals with disabilities, to ensure that no one is left behind in the AI revolution.

A robust AI talent pipeline is critical to the plan’s success. HHS aims to cultivate AI-empowered workforces through programs like NIH’s Data and Technology Advancement (DATA) National Service Scholar Program. Apprenticeships and internal talent development will also play a role in preparing organizations to adopt AI effectively and responsibly.

Initial responses to the plan have been overwhelmingly positive. Premier Inc., a healthcare improvement company, praised the initiative for aligning with its own AI policy recommendations. "Premier is especially energized by the plan’s recognition of AI’s power to revolutionize healthcare supply chain resilience," said Soumi Saha, Senior VP of Government Affairs at Premier, in a statement.

As artificial intelligence increasingly transforms healthcare and public services, the HHS strategic plan offers a framework with the potential to foster responsible and equitable innovation by prioritizing risk mitigation and collaboration.