New consortium of healthcare leaders announces formation of Trustworthy & Responsible AI Network (TRAIN), making safe and fair AI accessible to every healthcare organization

ORLANDO, Fla., March 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Monday, at the HIMSS 2024 Global Health Conference, a new consortium of healthcare leaders announced the creation of the Trustworthy & Responsible AI Network (TRAIN), which aims to operationalize responsible AI principles to improve the quality, safety and trustworthiness of AI in health. Members of the network include AdventHealth, Advocate Health, Boston Children's Hospital, Cleveland Clinic, Duke Health, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Mass General Brigham, MedStar Health, Mercy, Mount Sinai Health System, Northwestern Medicine, Providence, Sharp HealthCare, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Microsoft as the technology enabling partner. Additionally, the network is collaborating with OCHIN, which serves a national network of community health organizations with solutions, expertise, clinical insights and tailored technologies, and TruBridge, a partner and conduit to community healthcare, to help ensure that every organization, regardless of resources, has access to TRAIN's benefits.

New AI capabilities have the potential to transform the healthcare industry by enabling better care outcomes, improving efficiency and productivity, and reducing costs. From helping screen patients, to developing new treatments and drugs, to automating administrative tasks and enhancing public health, AI is creating new possibilities and opportunities for healthcare organizations and practitioners. As new uses of AI in healthcare continue to unfold and grow, the need for rigorous development and evaluation standards becomes even more important to ensure effective and responsible applications of AI.

Through collaboration, TRAIN members will help improve the quality and trustworthiness of AI by:

• Sharing best practices related to the use of AI in healthcare settings, including the safety, reliability and monitoring of AI algorithms, and the skillsets required to manage AI responsibly. Data and AI algorithms will not be shared between member organizations or with third parties.
• Enabling registration of AI used for clinical care or clinical operations through a secure online portal.
• Providing tools to enable measurement of outcomes associated with the implementation of AI, including best practices for studying the efficacy and value of AI methods in healthcare settings and leveraging of privacy-preserving environments, with considerations in both pre- and post-deployment settings. Tools that allow analyses to be performed in subpopulations to assess bias will also be provided.
• Facilitating the development of a federated national AI outcomes registry for organizations to share among themselves. The registry will capture real-world outcomes related to efficacy, safety and optimization of AI algorithms.

For more information on the collaboration and to hear from founding members, join us at our session at HIMSS on Tuesday, March 12, 2024, from 3 to 4 p.m. ET, "Operationalizing Responsible AI in Healthcare: Challenges and Opportunities."

TRAIN member quotes:

Duke Health
"I am excited to partner with my colleagues from our diverse group of health systems and Microsoft in the development and implementation of technologies and capabilities that make health AI more trustworthy," said Dr. Michael Pencina, chief data scientist for Duke Health and co-founder and board member for Coalition for Health AI (CHAI). "We look forward to leveraging the Coalition for Health AI's (CHAI) best practice guidelines and guardrails to build practical tools that make responsible AI a reality among healthcare delivery organizations in service to all our patients."

Vanderbilt University Medical Center
"Even the best healthcare today still suffers from many challenges that AI-driven solutions can substantially improve. However, just as we wouldn't think of treating patients with a new drug or device without ensuring and monitoring their efficacy and safety, we must test and monitor AI-derived models and algorithms before and after they are deployed across diverse healthcare settings and populations, to help minimize and prevent unintended harms," said Dr. Peter J. Embí, professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) and senior vice president for research and innovation at VUMC. "It is imperative that we work together and share tools and capabilities that enable systematic AI evaluation, surveillance and algorithmvigilance for the safe, effective and equitable use of AI in healthcare. TRAIN is a major step toward that goal."

Microsoft
"When it comes to AI's tremendous capabilities, there is no doubt the technology has the potential to transform healthcare. However, the processes for implementing the technology responsibly are just as vital," said Dr. David Rhew, global chief medical officer and vice president of healthcare, Microsoft. "By working together, TRAIN members aim to establish best practices for operationalizing responsible AI, helping improve patient outcomes and safety while fostering trust in healthcare AI."

Advocate Health
"At Advocate Health, innovation is at the core of our drive to advance the science of medicine," said Dr. Rasu Shrestha, executive vice president and chief innovation and commercialization officer for Advocate Health. "As we seek to make care more accessible and affordable for all, address the root causes of health inequities and provide the best health outcomes for our patients, we believe the responsible application of AI and leveraging key partnerships in this space will be essential as we reimagine how care delivery can be improved in the future." 

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
"Advancing AI in health care will be well served through a collective initiative such as this one that will allow us to responsibly harness AI potential for the betterment of patient care and outcomes," said Eric Peterson, M.D., MPH, vice provost and senior associate dean for clinical research, vice president for health system research, and professor, internal medicine. "We look forward to our role in guiding medicine into an exciting new era of discovery."

Northwestern Medicine
"At Northwestern Medicine, we believe AI in healthcare has the power to have a positive and transformative impact in our clinical care settings," said Doug King, senior vice president and chief information officer, Northwestern Medicine. "We're excited to collaborate with this consortium to ensure AI in the healthcare setting is deployed responsibly and in the best interest of our patients and caregivers."

OCHIN
"OCHIN is proud to join this strategic collaboration to help fuel the future of safe and inclusive healthcare innovation," said Kim Klupenger, chief experience officer, OCHIN. "By participating in the operationalization of responsible AI principles, we'll help ensure the diverse experiences of patients and providers from underserved communities are represented in the creation and adoption of new solutions that can drive efficiency and make day-to-day care delivery easier and more accessible across our growing network."

TruBridge
"With more than 46 million Americans living in rural areas, it's critically important to support community healthcare through innovation and the delivery of modern technology. Participating in TRAIN provides TruBridge the opportunity to represent our client base and help solve for the unique obstacles faced by health care providers and patients in rural areas with future AI solutioning. Our customer base has a diverse set of patients and data that is crucial for ensuring AI solutions don't carry biases, especially those that will reduce the impact on community health. The delivery of effective and responsible applications of AI is critically important in our commitment to clear the way for care," said Wes Cronkite, chief technology and innovation officer, TruBridge.

Mass General Brigham
"AI has the potential to transform how healthcare is delivered and received. However, we must embark on this journey with responsibility to our patients, our care teams, and the public," said Dr. Rebecca G. Mishuris, chief medical information officer and vice president, Mass General Brigham. "Mass General Brigham is excited to join this coalition to lay the groundwork for a common understanding and a thoughtful process that drives how health care organizations can ensure that AI is rigorously tested and equitably, safely and securely implemented for the betterment of health."

Mount Sinai Health System
"We are still in the early days of unlocking AI's immense potential in transforming healthcare delivery and are still scratching the surface of its immense potential. With any new technology, we must ensure safety, efficacy and equity before clinical and operational use," said Dr. Bruce Darrow, senior vice president of digital and technology partners at Mount Sinai Health System and professor of cardiology, medicine, population health science and policy at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "This responsibility is too great for one system, or company, to do alone. The Mount Sinai Health System is proud to work with our TRAIN colleagues on this important initiative."

AdventHealth
"As a physician executive, I envision a future where the integration of AI into our healthcare system is not merely an enhancement of our tools but a transformation of our approach to patient care. AI promises a world where diagnostic accuracy is heightened, treatment is precisely tailored, and preventable medical errors are significantly reduced, elevating the standard of patient care to unprecedented levels," said Dr. Victor Herrera, senior vice president and chief clinical officer at AdventHealth CFD. "We are excited to join our TRAIN partners in the journey to accelerate AI innovation in an ethical, responsible and safe way."

MedStar Health
"At MedStar Health, we use the best of our hearts and minds to be a leader in caring for people," said Dr. Neil J. Weissman, chief scientific officer for MedStar Health. "AI is already an exciting disruptor for healthcare, and we are eager to collaborate with our peers in this space to establish best practices and guidelines for how this technology can revolutionize patient care safely and equitably."

Cleveland Clinic
"The thoughtful implementation of AI has the potential to transform healthcare, allowing us to reach more patients and provide safer care with a higher-quality experience," said Rohit Chandra, Ph.D., chief digital officer at Cleveland Clinic. "However, we must be careful about how we bring AI into clinical practice. It's important that health systems come together in organizations like TRAIN to share best practices and align on responsible and safe uses of AI."

University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
"We at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health are excited to partner on this consortium to develop best practices and tools for fair, ethical and reproducible use of AI to advance biomedical research and translation to personalized medicine," said Jomol Mathew, Ph.D., associate dean for informatics and information technology.

Sharp HealthCare
"At Sharp HealthCare, the integration of AI into our vision can profoundly enhance its delivery of care, workplace environment and community presence," said Jon McManus, vice president and chief data and software development officer for Sharp HealthCare. "As we pursue AI's potential, anchored in safe and responsible principles of innovation, we believe Sharp HealthCare can fulfill its commitment to enhancing the health and well-being of the communities we serve. We look forward to partnering with TRAIN members toward these goals." 

Johns Hopkins Medicine
"AI presents vast potential for innovation in healthcare. To harness these benefits, we must develop reliable and trustworthy systems. We are eager to join the collaborative approach proposed by TRAIN, bringing together experts to take practical steps to responsibly operationalize AI," said Peter S. Greene, M.D., chief medical information officer, Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Providence
"While AI has already shown the potential to personalize patient and caregiver experiences, streamline workflows, transform care delivery and improve patient outcomes, its rapid development also comes with heightened risks," said Sara Vaezy, chief strategy and digital officer, Providence. "The creation of TRAIN is a big step toward developing necessary guardrails to responsibly deploy AI in ways that keep patient and caregiver well-being at the center of focus at all times. We look forward to joining this consortium so that the health sector can safely tap into the full potential of this revolutionary technology."

Boston Children's Hospital
"AI has incredible potential to transform healthcare; however, it's crucial that we harness this power ethically, responsibly and with safety at the forefront," said John Brownstein, Ph.D., chief innovation officer, Boston Children's Hospital. "As we continue to face complex and multifaceted challenges in healthcare, it's imperative that we come together as a community to navigate this new frontier and ensure that the benefits of AI are implemented equitably among all patients and providers."

Mercy
"Mercy has a decade of experience deploying original AI solutions and tracking their performance, outcomes and impact. This new collaborative of healthcare leaders focused on trustworthy and responsible use of AI will accelerate appropriate use and adoption in healthcare at a critical time where trust in AI technologies must be established to achieve their promise of value," said Byron Yount, Ph.D., chief data and AI officer and vice president of transformation operations, Mercy.

Partner quote:

Coalition for Health AI (CHAI)
"As a co-founder and board member of the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI), I am excited to see health systems coming together to operationalize CHAI's principles for Responsible and Trustworthy AI," said Dr. Nigam Shah, chief data scientist, Stanford Healthcare.

About the Trustworthy & Responsible AI Network (TRAIN)
The Trustworthy & Responsible AI Network (TRAIN) is one of the first health AI networks aimed at operationalizing responsible AI principles. Through collaboration, TRAIN members will help improve the quality, safety, and trustworthiness of AI in health by sharing best practices, enabling registration of AI used for clinical care or clinical operations, providing tools to enable measurement of outcomes associated with the implementation of AI, and facilitating the development of a federated national AI outcomes registry for organizations to share amongst themselves.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.