The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have joined hands to create an AI lab focused on evaluating and advancing promising emerging technologies in the healthcare sector.

The lab will serve as a valuable resource for both federal agencies and the private sector, providing a virtual environment to test AI applications. 

VA Undersecretary for Health Shereef Elnahal unveiled the initiative during the Veterans Health Administration Innovation Experience conference held in Chicago. He shared that the two agencies will create a collaborative testing platform for healthcare-related artificial intelligence tools. 

“The reason we are the ones collaborating with the FDA on this really important Health AI Lab is because they recognize our innovation potential. They saw our potential to do this work, and they are selecting us as their main clinical partner in assessing the adherence to trustworthy AI principles for anyone who wants to test their interventions,” Elnahal told Meritalk.

Last month, the VA sought industry assistance to initiate an AI program and establish governance support, as indicated by a request for information (RFI) posted by the VA Office of the Chief AI Officer (OCAIO).

“The complexity of this effort stems from the need to manage, operationalize, and implement a governance process that not only assesses safety impacting and rights impacting issues in AI use cases but also offers actionable remediation strategies when appropriate. The work example(s) provided in the submission should demonstrate the following: Ability to manage and implement a framework for AI governance that meets all the federal requirements for reporting and monitoring and contains both quantitative and qualitative measures for impact,” the RFI states.

In the document, the VA further notes that it is seeking five full-time contractors– an AI policy expert, a project manager, two senior technical policy analysts, and a senior communications specialist.