Philips CEO Roy Jakobs co-chairs US National Academy of Medicine’s Steering Committee on AI Code of Conduct

The United States National Academy of Medicine is launching a three-year project to develop a framework to advance governance in support of the responsible advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and its applications in health, healthcare and biomedical science. The National Academy of Medicine is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in the United States. The prestigious academies are private, nonprofit institutions that work outside of government to provide objective advice on matters of science, technology, and health. 

To ensure equitable, ethical, safe and responsible use of AI in health, the National Academy of Medicine invited a group of leading individuals from health, technology, research and bioethics to participate in a Steering Committee to develop an AI Code of Conduct (AICC). Philips CEO Roy Jakobs serves as co-chair with Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., President and CEO of Mayo Clinic, and Bakul Patel, MSc, MBA, Senior Director of Global Digital Health Strategy & Regulatory at Google. The AICC is a signature initiative of the National Academy’s Digital Health Action Collaborative (DHAC) which is co-chaired by Peter Lee, PhD, Corporate Vice President, Research and Incubations at Microsoft and Kenneth Mandl, MD, MPH, Director, Computational Health Informatics Program at Boston Children’s Hospital.

While AI holds the promise to improve the effectiveness, reliability and efficiency of care, it is also highly dependent on the data sets upon which it is trained and designed. Without proper vigilance, the potential exists for unintended consequences, potentially worsening health and societal inequities. The aim of the AICC project is to develop a framework that advances AI governance interoperability to ensure that AI algorithms and their application in health, health care, and biomedical science perform accurately, safely, reliably, and ethically in the service of better health for all.

Philips is committed to the safe and responsible use of data and AI, as highlighted in its Data and AI Principles. The quality of AI is limited by the quality of the data that is being fed into it. The initiative to develop the AICC is also in response to the need to promote interoperability. By fostering responsibility and accountability, the ethical application of AI can help to ensure inclusiveness and equity to support patient care and clinical practice in the future.

"To sustain and improve access to healthcare across the world requires the latest innovations using the latest technologies," said Roy Jakobs, CEO of Philips. "AI offers unprecedented new opportunities and developing an AI Code of Conduct will help to ensure equitable, ethical, safe and responsible use of AI in health and healthcare. This is about designing a framework to deliver on the full promise of AI, with people at the center, so we can help more care providers help more patients.”

Under the strategic guidance of the AICC Steering Committee – comprised of ethics and equity experts, care delivery systems, technology companies, patient advocates, researchers, and payers – the project will develop a national strategy for broad adoption of the AI Code of Conduct and describe a national architecture and priority actions to support and advance responsible AI in health, medical care, and health research. The AICC Steering Committee has committed to a multi-year tenure with its first publication due in early 2024.