Dan Liljenquist, chief strategy officer at Intermountain Health, delivers remarks during an event last week announcing the state’s approach to implementing AI in the healthcare realm. (Courtesy Utah Department of Commerce)
Audience members and news media listen to presentations last week at the Utah Capitol about a new framework for oversight of AI implementation in healthcare. (Courtesy Utah Department of Commerce)
This group of government and healthcare industry officials last week unveiled a new framework designed to advance AI use in the healthcare industry while also protecting patients. The event took place at the Utah Capitol. (Courtesy Utah Department of Commerce)
A state agency has unveiled a framework designed to let innovators advance AI use in the healthcare industry while evaluating that it is helping humans.
At a news conference last week at the Utah Capitol, the Utah Department of Commerce announced that healthcare will be the seventh “pillar” in the state’s “pro-human” AI approach. The agency aims to enhance AI development but ensure that it benefits the state’s residents.
“If we can get this right, we can actually see better access [to care], we can actually see lower costs, we can see greater clinician capacity, we can see lowering barriers from geography, and we can make better use of a scarce healthcare workforce,” Margaret Woolley Busse, the department’s commissioner, said at the event.
The department also announced agreements with Nolla Health, Expect Fitness and August AI related to AI initiatives, and a set of independent third-party evaluators to enhance accountability and verify pilot project claims. Busse said the impetus is “because we want Utah to be the place where responsible healthcare technology can be built, evaluated, improved and deployed,” adding that what is learned can shape policy recommendations for the Legislature.
Tracy Gruber, commissioner of Utah Department of Health and Human Services, said a recent study revealed that 29 percent of adults reported using AI to access health care information monthly. The state’s vision is to ensure that “all Utahns are healthy and safe,” she said.
“We know that AI can help us address some of these [industry] pressures, Gruber said. “They can allow patients to receive some routine care sooner, clinicians to focus their time where their expertise matters most — so not as a substitute — and extend that scarce expertise to more people and more communities.”
Zach Boyd, director of the Department of Commerce’s Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy, said the state’s regulatory “sandbox” allows technologies to advance while facing regulation in the form of being measured, independently verified and adjusted as needed.
“The entire healthcare system is going to evolve as AI solutions proliferate through the system, and we’re trying to make sure that it proliferates in a way that is beneficial for everyone,” Boyd said.
Among those involved in the framework are Intermountain Health and University of Utah Health, who have signed agreements with the state to establish expedited review pathways for future vetted healthcare AI pilot programs.
Dan Liljenquist, chief strategy officer at Intermountain Health, said his company already has over 300 AI initiatives but they are focused on administrative, “back-end” activities. AI, he said, can help address the industry’s unprecedented challenges, which include a pending wave of employee retirements and a set of systems and training that “have not met the challenge.”
“AI is an important tool in figuring out how to bridge from an old model to a new model, and we’re determined to lean in safely and in the appropriate ways to see how AI can wrap around our providers to remove friction, to improve coordination, to actually help us provide better healthcare, and that’s really important to us as we innovate together with the state,” Liljenquist said.
He was among a few speakers who stressed the increased need for the human touch in the future.
“Our purpose is really straightforward: We want to remove friction, expand access to care and improve care while keeping the human relationship at the center of what we do,” Liljenquist said. “So, AI should support clinical judgment, not replace it. It should help caregivers spend more time with the people, doing the work that only people can do.”
“The goal is not to take the human out of the loop,” Jim Hotaling, chief innovation officer at University of Utah Health, said, adding that the focus is providing optimized care for patients. “The goal is to actually make the human a better human and better able to take care of patients, focus on them and spend time with them, which is incredibly important.”
State Rep. Dave Schallenberger said the sandbox will allow healthcare companies to continue to innovate but also protect the consumer, which he said will be a multiyear process.
“As we build this framework, we want to make sure that we get to a good place, that we continue to drive the Utah economy forward, but most importantly, it helps out patients with improved overall health and that they can save money and that we’re in a better spot in the state of Utah,” Schallenberger said.
“We hear [about] so many people that are scared of AI and there’s so much out there that causes a lot of doom and gloom around AI, that I think we tend to sometimes overlook the promise of AI, and healthcare is one of those areas where there is a lot of promise here, right?” said State Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore.
Among pilot projects are those of Nolla Health, to assess AI-assisted visual evaluations and treatment pathways for mild-to-moderate acne, under specialist oversight; Expect Fitness, for an AI-enabled physical therapy pathway to support women experiencing postpartum recovery, urinary incontinence and pelvic health issues; and August AI, for prescription refills of routine, non-controlled chronic disease medications, with requirements for human physician reviews before prescriptions are authorized.
The network of independent third-party evaluators will assess and verify each sandbox pilot project to ensure that healthcare AI remains human-guided.
Dr. Bill Hamilton, of the Medical Licensing Board AI Working Group, said Utah aims to establish national best practices for evaluating AI clinical tools while maintaining rigorous standards for patient safety, medical ethics and quality of care.
Nirav Shan, of the Stanford Clinical Excellence Research Center, said the evaluators will “pressure-test” some AI assumptions, noting that Utah has led the nation in creating an environment “with smart regulation that unlocks innovation.”
“What Utah is doing is, we’re figuring it out,” Shan said. “We’re figuring it out together, with industry, with regulators, and setting the stage for what I think is going to be the national model for how AI is regulated.”
Details about the state’s AI approach are at ai.utah.gov and prohumanai.utah.gov.
