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President Biden’s executive order on artificial intelligence amounts to a giant course correction in health care. The actions taken in response could dramatically reshape how AI is used — and how much it costs — in areas from drug research to hospital care.

The order, released in full detail late Monday, calls for two elements of AI oversight that are currently nonexistent in health care: a policy, or independent body, that would test and assure the quality of AI tools, and a “central tracking repository” to report clinical errors associated with the use of the technology.

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AI standards bodies in health care have previously pitched both ideas, but throwing the weight of the federal government behind them is more likely to bring them to fruition. Biden’s orders all require action before next fall’s election, a timeline designed to build momentum behind regulations that may be harder for a successor with different ideas to reverse.

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