HITRUST this week unveiled its new AI Risk Management Assessment, which the company describes as a comprehensive assessment approach to mitigating the risks of deploying artificial intelligence in healthcare and other organizations.
WHY IT IS IMPORTANT
The evaluation should ensure that organizations have sufficient governance in place for the implementation of AI tools and that these measures can be effectively communicated by companies to management teams and boards of directors.
According to HITRUST, the approach is aligned with both NIST and ISO/IEC standards and is supported by an assessment framework and SaaS platform, allowing users to demonstrate achievement of AI risk management outcomes.
“The entire effort to address risk management at scale can take weeks or months of work just to design and maintain an assessment approach, socialize that approach, and prepare for the assessment work itself,” added Bimal Sheth, EVP of standards development and assurance operations at HITRUST. “Even then, there can be questions about completeness and quality, and the work can be exhausting as the organization tries to align to multiple industry standards.”
The framework is designed for any organization using such tools, including machine learning algorithms and large language models for generative AI. It is intended to help leaders in healthcare and other industries validate their risk management approaches for these rapidly evolving technologies.
“The AI RM solution can be used as a self-assessment and benchmarking tool, or companies can engage one of HITRUST’s more than 100 third-party assessors to validate and verify implementation,” said Jeremy Huval, Chief Innovation Officer at HITRUST, in a statement.
THE BIGGER TREND
The new risk management tool comes less than a year after HITRUST announced its AI Assurance Program in October 2023. The project aims to provide an approach inspired by the HITRUST Common Security Framework to help healthcare organizations develop strategies for safe, sustainable and trustworthy AI models.
HITRUST says it also plans to launch a new AI Security Certification Program by the end of this year, which will include AI-specific control specifications included in the HITRUST CSF and enhancements to the company’s assurance methodologies, systems and ecosystem.
Earlier this month, another organization, NIST, unveiled an open-source platform for AI security assessments. The free tool, called Dioptra, is intended to help developers understand and mitigate some of the unique data risks associated with AI and machine learning models.
ON THE RECORD
“AI risk management standards are evolving rapidly, and it is critical for companies to address these principles with a thoughtful and comprehensive approach,” said Robert Booker, Chief Strategy Officer at HITRUST, in a statement announcing the AI Risk Management Assessment. “Governance of this important and powerful capability is essential to unlocking the potential that AI offers, and risk management is critical to implementing AI responsibly.”
Mike Miliard is Editor-in-Chief of Healthcare IT News
Email the author: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS.
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