UPDATE: The American Heart Association (AHA) has just unveiled new guidelines aimed at improving the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, particularly in cardiovascular and stroke care. This urgent advisory, published today in the journal Circulation, outlines a pragmatic framework designed to fill critical gaps in current AI evaluation practices.
Despite the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearing hundreds of AI tools for use in healthcare, a mere fraction undergoes rigorous evaluation for clinical impact, fairness, or potential bias. The AHA’s advisory urges health systems to adopt clear rules to ensure AI technologies enhance patient care without compromising safety or equity.
These guidelines, developed by a team led by Dr. Sneha S. Jain, a clinical assistant professor at Stanford Health Care, emphasize the need for health systems to implement effective governance for selecting and monitoring AI tools. “AI is transforming healthcare faster than traditional evaluation frameworks can keep up,” Dr. Jain stated. The advisory presents four guiding principles: strategic alignment, ethical evaluation, usefulness and effectiveness, and financial performance to ensure that AI tools deliver measurable clinical benefits.
Currently, a troubling 61% of hospitals utilizing predictive AI tools have not validated them with local data before deployment, and less than half have tested for bias. This discrepancy raises urgent concerns about the quality of care provided across diverse patient populations, particularly in smaller, rural, and non-academic institutions.
The AHA has committed over $12 million in research funding in 2025 to explore novel AI delivery strategies focused on safety and efficacy, strengthening its role as a leader in responsible AI governance. The organization boasts a vast network of nearly 3,000 hospitals involved in their quality improvement programs, including more than 500 rural and critical access facilities.
Dr. Lee H. Schwamm, a senior vice president at Yale New Haven Health System, emphasized the necessity of responsible AI use, stating, “This guidance provides practical steps for health systems to evaluate and monitor AI tools, ensuring they improve patient outcomes and support equitable, high-quality care.” The advisory underscores the importance of ongoing monitoring, alerting health systems that the performance of AI tools may drift over time, necessitating integration into existing quality assurance initiatives.
As healthcare increasingly incorporates AI technologies, the AHA’s new guidelines stand as a pivotal resource for improving patient care and safeguarding against potential risks. Healthcare providers are strongly encouraged to act now to implement these recommendations, ensuring that AI innovations lead to tangible benefits for patients.
For more information, refer to the study by Sneha S. Jain et al, titled “Pragmatic Approaches to the Evaluation and Monitoring of Artificial Intelligence in Health Care” in Circulation, DOI: 10.1161/cir.0000000000001400.
