University of California, Davis Health Pioneers Framework for Ethical Health AI and Data Governance

A California-based healthcare provider has produced two data governance standards to reach their goal of evaluating and integrating ethical artificial intelligence models into their clinical operations.

With the help of the HIMSS Adoption Model for Analytics Maturity (AMAM), the University of California, Davis Health (UC Davis) used the AMAM maturity model frameworks to spot gaps in their data governance and pioneer a framework for ethical health AI.

The HIMSS Adoption Model for Analytics Maturity (AMAM) measures the analytics capabilities that healthcare organizations have gained from having a strong analytics strategy and competency. UC Davis used these frameworks to create cohesive data governance with system-wide data standards and informatics workflows.

After building a novel data governance program to define best practices, standardize workflows, and increase literacy, UC Davis created S.M.A.R.T. and S.A.F.E., a clinical evaluation framework for health AI governance. Like most healthcare systems, UC Davis didn’t have an efficient procedure in place to classify which machine learning models were safe, unbiased, and effective. The development of S.M.A.R.T. and S.A.F.E. allowed UC Davis practitioners to ensure that any machine learning model that might impact patients or providers was safe, accurate, fair, and evidence-based.

With the help of AMAM, UC Davis was able to set up complete data governance in place of a more siloed data strategy. Their new analytics foundation paved the way for the S.M.A.R.T. and S.A.F.E. framework, which to date has successfully identified 25 AI models for implementation and 5 AI models that were not deemed suitable for implementation in clinical operations.

As the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning continues to skyrocket across the healthcare industry, health systems need more frameworks like UC Davis’s S.M.A.R.T. and S.A.F.E. to better understand the risks, biases, and ethical issues around using AI models.

The partnership between UC Davis and HIMSS is helping to set a new standard and framework for the ethical use of AI in healthcare.