Health Subcommittee Holds Hearing on the Meaningful Impacts of AI Applications in Our American Health Care System

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Congressman Morgan Griffith (VA-09), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, led a hearing titled Examining Opportunities to Advance American Health Care through the Use of Artificial Intelligence Technologies.

"In the health care space today, AI is being deployed by innovators to empower patients along their personal health care journey, support health care providers, and reduce unnecessary administrative burdens," said Chairman Griffith. "Applications of AI and machine learning have increased across the health care sector in recent years and will only play a more pronounced role in the daily lives of all Americans moving forward."

Watch the full hearing here.

Below are key excerpts from today's hearing:

Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger (TN-01): "Mr. Toy, you mentioned that as far as utilizing your community provider (and your pharmacists) in rural areas, what do you think about [using technology and automation as a platform to expand and reinvigorate the practice of community pharmacy]?" Mr. Toy: "I think that-and you probably see this in your own practice-there's not a lot of coordination right now between the actual pharmacist and the physician. Oftentimes, a physician uses their mind, they think about things, they write a script, and then they're like, 'Okay, where would you like that filled,' right? That's the question they asked the patient. What we want to make sure is that there's coordination there and make it very easy for the pharmacist to have the same information that was available. The thing that AI can do also is take that same information and customize it-not just to the patient, but customize it to the clinician in question."

Congressman Jay Obernolte (CA-23): "You know, we've been telling people for years how AI is going to aid in drug discovery, how it's going to aid in diagnosis-predictive diagnoses where there's pattern recognition and talking about risks you didn't even know existed-tailored drug therapies that are tailored to your genome... all of these things are what we've been promising people that AI is going to do, and we're coming now to them with 'It's going to reduce your administrative costs, and that's what we're doing with it right now.' Should people be disappointed about that, or is this just the first of many things to come?" Mr. Parker: "[...] I'm optimistic that those new experiences will help people be healthier, help them save money. It's why our implementations are so pragmatic, right? I think everyone's always talked about how you can't get a price for anything in health care, so solving that [by] using AI is a very useful utility for the consumer. Similar with the care plans, enabling consumers to be able to manage their health [and] understand what they should be doing as next steps is, to me, what gets me up in the morning-is helping patients realize the value of AI in their everyday life. It's not to diminish the value that will be created on the administrative side. I think that's low hanging fruit."

Congressman Nick Langworthy (NY-23): "AI is no longer a theory about the future. It's already transforming the way we deliver care, how we diagnose disease, and how we use data to improve outcomes. In my district, in Western New York and in the rural Southern Tier, families are counting on a health care system that's more efficient, more affordable, and more responsive. AI-driven innovation and technology can help us meet those expectations by reducing administrative burdens, strengthening clinical decision-making, and unlocking discoveries that once took years in a matter of months."

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