HHS Agencies Flesh Out Priorities for Healthcare AI

HHS Agencies Flesh Out Priorities for Healthcare AI Coordinated 'OneHHS' AI Governance, Implementation, Guidance Efforts Under Way Marianne Kolbasuk McGee (HealthInfoSec) • June 26, 2026     Credit Eligible Get Permission The US Department of Health and Human Services is fleshing out its 'OneHHS' road map for accelerating adoption of artificial intelligence technologies in healthcare. (Image: Getty Images) The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is preparing new guidance to help accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence across healthcare, with federal officials signaling that governance frameworks, implementation support and new approaches for evaluating clinical AI tools are among the department's top priorities. See Also: Beat the Breach: Outsmart Attackers and Secure the Cloud Officials from multiple HHS agencies - including the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, the Food and Drug Administration and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health - on Thursday fleshed out plans for a coordinated "OneHHS" strategy for expanding AI use. The OneHHS effort, first announced in December, aims to encourage broader AI adoption in the sector while developing policies intended to build trust among clinicians and patients (see: HHS Outline AI Road Map Amid Major Department Overhaul). Thursday's discussion highlighted themes emerging from a public request for information HHS issued in December seeking recommendations on how the federal government should promote responsible AI adoption through regulation, research, development and reimbursement. HHS received more than 7,000 public comments to its request for information. "We heard the need for adoption support, governance frameworks, responsible adoption, with trust at the center," said Mark Atalla, deputy national coordinator for health information technology. "That's something you'll see more from us in the coming weeks." Officials said healthcare organizations, technology developers and other stakeholders consistently called for clearer coordination across HHS agencies, stronger implementation guidance and governance support, and better methods for evaluating and benchmarking clinical AI systems. "People want consistency," said Arman Sharma, HHS deputy chief AI officer. "The community deserves clarity from us about where to engage the department." HHS officials also said they want to encourage AI use beyond administrative applications and into direct patient care as the healthcare system faces growing demand from an aging population, persistent shortages of specialists and increasing burdens on family caregivers. AI is already helping clinicians identify stroke patients, generate clinical documentation, recruit participants for clinical trials, accelerate drug discovery and strengthen public health surveillance, said Dr. Thomas Keane, national coordinator for health IT. "Our goal is to improve access, affordability and the impact of healthcare through technology, including AI," Keane said. Clinical AI, Caregiving Initiatives Officials of several HHS agencies described projects intended to expand AI-enabled care. The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health's Advocate program is developing AI-powered cardiovascular care agents designed to interact directly with patients, integrate with electronic health records and wearable devices, and help manage chronic heart disease, said Dr. Haider Warraich, an ARPA-H program manager and practicing cardiologist. The patient data will be integrated in real time with the electronic health record, "and also with variables, because we get so much physiologic data from variables, but we don't actually use it clinically," Warraich said. "In part, we've never had a technology that can use this, and now with AI, we really feel like we can unlock the potential that variables have in building out a surveillance layer, helping us be more proactive rather than reactive," he said. Warraich said health systems are being recruited to co-develop the technology and eventually deploy it in randomized clinical trials. "Really, what we're trying to do is build the entire stack that will make clinical agentic AI a reality for every American," he said. The Administration for Community Living is pursuing separate AI initiatives focused on supporting family caregivers, strengthening the home healthcare workforce and improving care coordination through remote monitoring and other digital tools. "We'd really like to improve the quality of care at home, reduce caregiver burden and strengthen the caregiver infrastructure for the future," said Kelly Cronin, ACL deputy administrator. "We want to supplement, not replace human connection." FDA's AI Plans Meanwhile, the FDA is preparing new policy proposals addressing increasingly autonomous AI-enabled medical technologies while maintaining the agency's risk-based regulatory approach. Among the FDA's priorities are providing greater regulatory clarity, ensuring oversight is proportionate to risk, strengthening life cycle monitoring of AI-enabled products and coordinating with other federal agencies and international regulators, said Rick Abramson, director of the FDA's Digital Health Center of Excellence. "The FDA will need to be clear not only on what it regulates and how, on what is required of sponsors, and also what role FDA will play in both the pre-market and post-market settings," Abramson said. "We aim to get that clarity out to the community." "We plan to meet the challenge, and the public should be expecting us to release some ideas to the public for stakeholder comment in very short order," he said.