Bipartisan bill seeks to bolster AI use in pediatric cancer care
A bipartisan bill introduced on July 9 seeks to bolster the use of artificial intelligence in pediatric cancer care.
Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, Ami Bera, MD, D-Calif., and Mike Kelly, R-Penn.—all members of the Childhood Cancer Caucus—are proposing the Accelerating Innovation (AI) for Kids Act. They say their legislation would fast-track the deployment of AI to improve pediatric cancer research, treatment options and data storage.
McCaul, who founded the caucus 17 years ago and currently chairs it, said the bill would build on a September White House executive order, calling for greater use of AI in pediatrics.
"We owe it to our nation's children to leverage cutting-edge AI to improve their care and treatment options,” McCaul said in a statement Thursday. “By empowering AI to continuously drive research forward, we move one step closer to beating this heartbreaking disease once and for all,” he added later.
The bill would better coordinate federal efforts to use AI and other advanced technologies to improve diagnoses, treatments, cures and prevention strategies for pediatric cancer. It calls for the president to appoint an individual to facilitate federal efforts to harness AI and other tech. The individual would be known as the “coordinator of AI innovation” and serve on the Domestic Policy Council.
They’ll be tasked with identifying opportunities to accelerate the progress of AI-driven solutions at the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative, according to the bill’s text. This will include improving clinical trials by incorporating AI and improving data infrastructure. Lawmakers also touted the task of turning imaging and other “multi-omics” data into novel, diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic markers. The AI for Kids Act would additionally task the HHS secretary with finalizing interoperability standards for patient data to be used with AI and produce a report to lawmakers on these initiatives.
“Congress should always consider new … ways not only to treat cancer, but to defeat cancer,” Rep. Kelly said in the announcement. “This legislation would leverage artificial intelligence to strengthen patient care and patient outcomes.”
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.