"The Department of Veterans Affairs' use of generative artificial intelligence tools in clinical settings represents "a potential patient safety risk," the agency's watchdog warned in a new report. The analysis, released on Thursday by VA's Office of the Inspector General, found that uses of generative AI chatbots across the Veterans Health Administration - VA's healthcare arm - lacked the necessary oversight to mitigate potential risks resulting from these tools' output."
"OIG said it examined two chatbots used by VHA: VA GPT, "a general use AI chat tool created by VA," and Microsoft 365 Copilot chat, "a general use AI chat tool that the VA provides to all VA staff." The watchdog said both of these tools are dependent on clinical prompts to work and do not have access to web searches, meaning that "the chat tools' knowledge base is not current.""
"In its review, OIG said it found that VHA's healthcare-related uses of AI "are driven by an informal collaboration" between the leadership of VA's National Artificial Intelligence Institute and the department's chief AI officer. Following interviews with VHA staff, however, the watchdog said it found these units did not properly coordinate with VA's National Center for Patient Safety when it came to clinical uses of these generative AI tools."
The Office of the Inspector General found the Department of Veterans Affairs' use of generative AI in clinical settings poses a potential patient safety risk. Generative AI chatbots across the Veterans Health Administration lacked oversight to mitigate inaccuracies and omissions. OIG examined VA GPT and Microsoft 365 Copilot chat and found both depend on clinical prompts and cannot access web searches, leaving knowledge bases outdated. VHA's AI work stems from an informal collaboration between the National Artificial Intelligence Institute leadership and the chief AI officer and did not coordinate with the National Center for Patient Safety. VHA has no formal mechanism to identify, track, or resolve AI risks.
Read at Nextgov.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]