Joint Commission, CHAI Publish Guidance on AI Development

The Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based Joint Commission has released guidance around artificial intelligence, in collaboration with the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI), itself a collaborative representing providers, policy leaders, and vendors, and whose stated mission is “to advance the responsible development, deployment, and oversight of AI in healthcare by fostering collaboration across the health sector, including industry, government, academia and patient communities.” This development has been anticipated, as the Joint Commission and CHAI had announced in June that they were collaborating in this area.

A press release posted to the Joint Commission’s website on Sep. 17 began thus: “Today, Joint Commission and the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) released the first installment of their work together – Guidance on Responsible Use of AI in Healthcare, which will serve as internal governance to help U.S. health systems safely and effectively implement artificial intelligence (AI) at scale. This guidance represents the first of many milestones to result from their strategic partnership, launched June 2025.” And it quoted Jonathan Perlin, M.D., the Joint Commission’s president and CEO, who said that “We understand how quickly AI is changing healthcare – and at a scale I’ve never seen in my time as a leader. From the moment we announced our partnership with CHAI, we knew we wanted our partnership to reflect that fast-paced dynamic, while still delivering a thoughtful and streamlined guidance for healthcare organizations to self-govern with AI.”

The press release went on to note that “This guidance, which features high-level recommendations for the Responsible Use of AI and is designed to be accessible, applicable, and adaptable for healthcare organizations at any stage of their AI journey. Specifically, it establishes that policies, appropriate local validation, monitoring, and use, to be flexibly interpreted and integrated into existing or new processes as deemed appropriate for the context of any organization. This guidance is meant to provide transparency into the Joint Commission-CHAI process, and community feedback on this guidance will be incorporated into future outputs.”

And it quoted Brian Anderson, M.D., CEO of CHAI, as stating that “The need is immediate, and we are eager to respond. This guidance and all subsequent playbooks are about keeping pace with the evolving field, not just by defining responsible AI, but by making it usable in hospitals and health systems across the country—no matter their resource level.”

The press release noted that “A series of products are slated to launch later this year and into 2026. The next release will be governance playbooks, after a series of workshops are conducted to ensure hospitals and health systems of all sizes and regions are contributing to its development. These playbooks will be built on the original guidance, incorporating the feedback received from the community, and providing more practical and applied details. Following that, Joint Commission will develop a voluntary AI certification based on the final set of playbooks and open it to its more than 22,000 accredited and certified healthcare organizations nationwide.” And it noted that “Joint Commission’s evidence-based standards, reach, and scale, combined with CHAI’s technical expertise and broad-based network, provides the unique ability to guide health systems in effectively utilizing AI to improve patient outcomes. Further, the ongoing partnership will foster increased innovation within expert and field-driven guidelines and guardrails, more productivity and reduced administrative burden on providers, and overall better health outcomes.”

The entire document, entitled “The Responsible Use of AI in Healthcare,” can be found here. It notes, among other things, that “The transformative opportunity that AI presents is not without risk... One of the primary concerns is the potential for AI errors, which could arise from algorithmic biases, data inaccuracies, or unforeseen interactions within the healthcare environment. These errors can lead to misdiagnoses, inappropriate treatment plans, and ultimately, patient harm. Additionally, the lack of transparency in AI decisionmaking processes, often referred to as the ‘black box’ problem, poses significant challenges in understanding and trust. Another risk involves data privacy and security. AI systems require vast amounts of data to function effectively, raising concerns about protecting sensitive patient information. Breaches in data security and uses of patient data in ways that are not anticipated by patients, such as for commercial benefit, could compromise patient confidentiality and trust, leading to legal and ethical ramifications and curb future use of AI-enabled tools.”

What’s more, the document notes, “The rapid pace of AI development can also outstrip the ability of healthcare organizations to keep up with necessary training and updates. This knowledge gap may result in improper use of AI tools, further exacerbating the risk of patient harm. Moreover, overreliance on AI could potentially diminish the role of human judgment in clinical decision-making, leading to depersonalized care and potential ethical dilemmas. Finally, even where AI-enabled software or medical devices are validated and/or approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), the integration of AI  into existing healthcare systems can be challenging, requiring significant adjustments in clinical  workflows, which may disrupt established processes and lead to errors and create resistance among healthcare professionals.”