Witnesses and representatives also discuss the issue of data privacy and the need for federal regulation. The subcommittee will come to order in the chair will recognize itself for an Opening Statement for five minutes. I will spend my first little bit to say we have news on our Ranking Member and we Exchange Messages over thanksgiving weekend. What a wonderful lady, what a wonderful person and someone who really puts this committee, the subcommittee and the institution of congress. We have another year to Work Together. You will be sorely missed. Thank you. [applause] oh my goodness. [applause] thank you. We still have a year to get things done and we will get things done. I would just like to thank our witnesses for being here today. Ive got to get my statement in and four minutes. That was important. I should not use all my time. Thank you to our witnesses for being here today. Issues regarding Artificial Intelligence. It is important that we shine a light on a roll ai can play in solving some of our most significant healthcare problems. They are already changing the way in which clinicians pay for their patients and how they conduct Clinical Trials. As ai continues to drive innovation in healthcare it is essential that they examine the meaningful benefits at any potential unintended consequences that these technologies could have. The potential benefits are seemingly without limit. Technology could help our Healthcare System save lives by better predicting potential diagnosis and help us reduce redundancies in our system. We have already seen this play out in real time and i watch unimaginable advances in healthcare. As a result of generative ai. Numerous Success Stories and using Critical Research and development to give research to the market sooner. This was a case by mit scientists to be used as an effective antibiotic. They use ai to help detect earlystage cancers. It is being used to augment existing. This is not to say we should let the use of these technologies go without guardrails. Over the next several months, some fundamental questions regarding the role they will play in our Healthcare System. Trained with supervised ai to drive outcomes. Are these technologies trained with unsupervised ai . Based off Human Behavior for healthcare consumers. Are these technologies trained with reinforced ai which they are really rewarding the systems for which that is generated. They are very complex and difficult things we need to explore as we move forward. These cases are important to remember that every decision comes with a cost. Both human and financial. There constantly monitoring someones heart rate caloric intake and outtake in sleep patterns can help. Extreme cardiac event. Using user data to predict better lifestyle habits. How are we ensuring this data is secure and ensuring they have full control over this information and it is not being used or sold without their consent. A major health event. Are there protocols to ensure individuals are taking unnecessary trips to the emergency room and incurring debt as a result. In closing i support the real possibilities they can bring to our Healthcare System and most importantly to patients. We should get the technology the license to coexist alongside clinicians, patients and innovators as well as regulators while also remaining vigilant of how this technology is being used. I look forward to the discussion today and i will yield back and continue my praise for the Ranking Member. We have a year to Work Together. You treated me with most respect in the areas where we did not agree, you challenge my thinking sometimes. Sometimes we had to move forward it was always with the utmost respect. With that, i will recognize the Ranking Member for five minutes for her Opening Statement. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Your words mean a great deal to me. I am deeply moved and touched by the expression of the members of the subcommittee. You know how much i love this committee. We have gotten so many important things done, gotten them over the finish line. Lets optimize our time so we can continue that tradition. Thank you to each one of you. You are all my friends. My fellow americans, my fellow colleagues. There is so much that i want to say. Really, there are not words to express how deeply deeply grateful i am. And the messages board and, i kept them all and i reread them before i go to sleep at night. They are really beautiful. Its like falling asleep on this magnificent cloud of goodwill. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Here we are to discuss ai and healthcare. The nexus between the two is really very, very important one. It represents an Incredible Opportunity for our country. It has the potential to make our Healthcare System more efficient improve on physicians. New ways to use ai in the Healthcare System are consistently in the news. I think all of you see this in your national clip as you read them at the end of every day. New york times in the october of this year. New diagnosis, brain tumors on the operating table. Forbes in august of this year. Ai is a game changer for toughest areas of Drug Discovery wall street journal in november of last year. While straightbacked researchers use ai to probe for weaknesses. Despite this incredible permit, ai we know and some of the fathers and mothers of ai have instructed us on the potential that ai has, its the other part of the spectrum to worsen Patient Outcome and exacerbate inequities that we have in our Healthcare System if it is not deployed with adequate guardrails. Earlier this month reports found that a lawsuit now alleges that United Health group, one of the largest insurers in our country used in ai algorithm to wrongfully deny medicare to beneficiaries. Yay i algorithm made decisions about patient care that went against the recommendations of the patients own physicians. Another example is our nations children are being left behind as ai and medical imaging rapidly expand. There are no computer aided detections, computerassisted triage or computer aided diagnosis radiology progress authorized for pediatric use is. These pediatric radiologists are working with children. You cannot experiment on children. In many areas, the red lights are blinking and we need to Pay Attention to that. Children are not little adults. I am working on a proposal to address this gap for pediatric patients. In my view and the view both republican and democratic members of both the house and the senate have created legislation that would democratize a i. Today the resources, massive resources are really in the hands of very large hightechnology companies. So we can get that over the finish line in this congress. So then please the witnesses are here. Im happy to beat with each one of you and my colleagues. I think this commit it can lead the effort on ai as it applies to health care. I dont think this is you know easy stuff. We have two rise to this challenge and i think we have the capacity to do so so thank you mr. Chairman and i yield back. Thank you. The gentlelady is back in the chair will recognize the Charitable Committee chair rodgers for five minutes. Mr. Chairman. My heartfelt warm wishes to the ranking democrat eshoo. Shes been a trailblazer for so many including me and im grateful for her outstanding leadership and your friendship these years. This is not a Court Hearing that the energy and Commerce Committee is held across our subcommittees on the subject of Artificial Intelligence. Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform every aspect of our lives for better or for worse. Its critical that america, not china is the one addressing the ai challenges in meeting in the technologys development. The best way to start is by laying the groundwork to protect peoples information with a National Data privacy standards. This is a foundational First Step Towards a safe and prosperous ai future in health care and beyond. I look forward to continuing to discuss how we can improve protections for americans as we incorporate ai tools. Im proud of each of our subcommittee chairs for leading on this important issue. Ai has a unique role to play in the future of health care. Ai can help find the next break through here or improve their ability to catch deadly diseases earlier. Weirsdale Artificial Intelligence can aid in the assessment of medical Indemnity Medical and then in anonymity and ease burdens on Health Care Providers for the recall heard from providers in her district about the burdens of necessary. Cumbersome paperwork and how often this leads to burnout for doctors and nurses and how it eats up time we could be spending providing patient care. For my entire tenure in congress one of the top issues that we have struggled with has been finding ways to cut paperwork redundantly in our Health Care System so we can let doctors do what doctors do best, treat their patients are at 4 years we have nibbled around the edges of this issue but the future of ai could be transformative and hopefully let doctors be doctors instead of administrative staff. We will hear more from doctors schlosser on hca how its being tested out of hospital stay to be clear a i will not solve all the problems with americas Health Care System. One concern we have frequently heard is the potential of human biases to be implicitly based into Ai Technology. The first piece of Health Care Legislation this committee advanced is my bill to ban the usage of quality adjusted life years or quality which are discriminatory measures that are used by federal payers to deny Health Care Services to people with disabilities and chronic illness. If the ai is reliant on quality or other similar measures in clinical decisionmaking are most vulnerable will be left behind. No one here wants to advocate for discrimination and we need to be conscious about federal programs and Ai Technology incorporates these types of biases and what we should be thinking about in this area. I will close by saying that im optimistic about this technology. Think these technologies can make a difference in the lives of patients in this committee needs to lead the way in this innovation. For america to lead we must strike the right balance with ai. He gives businesses the flexibility remain agile as they developed these cuttingedge technologies while assuring responsible use. A National Standard for the selection and handling of data will help Health Care Providers and every american was with clear understandable protections wherever they are. Todays hearing hopefully sheds more light on the current landscape of ai in health care and hopefully provide us with further insight on the next steps that we should take. I yield back. The gentlelady yields back. The chair will now recognize the gentleman from new jersey Ranking Member for an Opening Statement. Thank you mr. Chairman i want to start out by thinking or two democratic members of the subcommittee for their retirement at the end of next year. I told them both they should change their minds that they dont want to. Let me start with Ranking Member eshoo who served as the top democrat on the subcommittee for the last five years including four years as chair and she let the subcommittee. The cobra 19 pandemic played a Critical Role in our success for efforts to user fees but thats just in the last session. And shes been on the Health Care Committee for a long time. A lot of you dont know that i have worked with and not even before energy and Commerce Committee which he played a Critical Role outside of the committee in many ways particularly with the armenian corridor. If it was not for anna lee would not have recognized the Armenian Genocide which is so important in our history when that happened and we did that. So thank you anna and tony to say tony is a long time leader on the subcommittee. Hes also served as the vice chair for Consumer Protection and commerce subcommittee for years. Hes led several other key efforts to put consumers first including a new law that protects babies from dangerous sleeping products. Again i want to emphasize tonys role outside of the Commerce Committee. With the caucus, he has played a tremendous role in promoting not only latino members but also the issues that are important to them. In both cases ended in this case as well as tonys case what they have accomplished here is important for committee that goes beyond the committee so thank you both. I had to say we still have another year left of their contributions and they are still more to be done. Let me go if i can to the issue that we are dealing with today. We are exploring how Artificial Intelligence is changing health care now and potentially in the future. This is an important hearing because the integration that ai present opportunities in patient care and streamline product to bring more efficiency to the Health Sector and at the same Time Congress must recognize the complex ethical and economic and social concerns raised by this sector of the greater deployment of ai in the Health Care System but as we will hear data is central to the use of ai in the delivery of health care as the patients medical data protecting individual information of privacy. I remain concerned the use of ai and health care is generated a significant risk and critical safeguards in place to protect the privacy and security of the patients data and ive said that each of our ai hearing this era strongly believe is the bedrock of any ai regulation we must have a strong protections for all consumers. Ai cannot function without large quantities of data and we must ensure that this increase data demand does not come at the expense of consumers right to privacy. Im going to continue to push for a comprehensive National Privacy standard. Under the chair is just as concerned but i believe its the only way we can limit the unscrupulous Data Collection until practice. Its only way we can ensure all of her personal medical information is protected on line and protected against algorithmic bias in security breaches. Ais role in rich education of medical claim statistically poses a grave concern to me. Its my potential to revolutionize the Health Care Landscape a i answered mrs. Could result in the denial of medical care potentially worsening Health Equity. Right now the classaction lawsuit against a major use of ai to deny medical claims made ai systems played a role in the survival of over 300,000 payment requests in a twomonth period. The average time supposedly revealed its claim is 1. 2 seconds. Ai tools can aid in Health Care Providers but the recommendation should not serve as a substitute for the nuanced judgment of her Health Care Professionals. Ai has the potential to supplement medical decisions however when Health Care Companies driven by efficiencies implement ai suggestions without critical scrutiny i worry that patients could be put at risk. So theres a lot of work to be done here and i want to thank the chairman of the subcommittee and the chair of the full committee for prioritizing this. Thank you and i yield back. At the gentleman would deal for a couple seconds. I didnt see the tony come into the room when i talked about annie. Several issues and one i remember when we had issues to help Small Businesses that were affected and we are focused on working together. It was a great experience so congratulations to you and we have another year to Work Together. The gentleman yields back. Thanks and we well have more time to move forward this year. We will see what happens, right . Now that concludes member statements and we will move to our witnesses Opening Statements but i will introduce each one of you and calling you. If i introduce you as a group and call a new to give your Opening Statement and those of you who have not testified some of you may have not you have a green light. The green light is for five minute