NEW YORK — Researchers from Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine have created an index that tracks the evolving policies being developed around AI use in healthcare.
The researchers analyzed 240 health care AI-related policies published between 2016 and 2025 using their newly developed framework called the Health & AI Policy Index. The analysis found that oversight efforts are accelerating worldwide, though no single, unified framework currently exists to guide how AI should be deployed, monitored and governed in clinical settings.
Understanding the Challenges
The findings come as AI tools are increasingly being used in nearly every aspect of healthcare, including patient care, diagnostics, administrative workflows and clinical decision support. This is raising growing questions about safety, accountability, transparency and implementation standards.
“Artificial intelligence is moving into healthcare faster than many organizations can fully evaluate or govern it,” says lead author Will Moss, a healthcare AI policy intern at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Our goal was to create a clearer picture of the rapidly evolving policy landscape and help health systems better understand the governance challenges emerging alongside AI adoption.”
The researchers found that governance efforts are developing through a patchwork of regulations, institutional guidance, technical standards and policy initiatives rather than through a centralized system. The authors say this fragmented environment may create operational and compliance challenges for health systems attempting to responsibly integrate AI technologies.
“Health systems are increasingly recognizing that successful AI adoption requires more than just implementing new tools,” says senior author Girish N. Nadkarni, MD, MPH, Chair of the Windreich Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health and Chief AI Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System. “It also depends on strong oversight, internal governance structures and clear accountability around how these technologies are used.”
Looking to the Future
The study also highlights the growing role academic medical centers and large health systems may play in shaping real-world AI governance practices as adoption accelerates.
“Questions around transparency, patient safety and accountability are becoming central to the future of healthcare AI,” says Dr. Nadkarni. “Our work helps identify where policy efforts are growing, where gaps remain and where additional coordination may be needed.”
To conduct the study, researchers used the Health & AI Policy Index to catalog and analyze health care AI-related policies published over nearly a decade. The framework was designed to help track emerging policy trends and better organize the rapidly growing body of AI policy activity affecting health care delivery.
The authors say the findings may help policymakers, researchers and health systems better navigate the increasingly complex governance environment surrounding clinical AI technologies.
Future work may include analyzing how governance approaches differ across jurisdictions and how health systems operationalize AI governance in real-world clinical settings.
To see the full paper, click here.
To read more of the latest AI in Eye Care news, click here.
Author
