At Inova, our mission is to provide world-class healthcare – every time, every touch – to each person in every community we have the privilege to serve.
To deliver on that promise, we use tools that help our clinicians do their best work – effectively, safely, and responsibly. Technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), plays an important role.
Where we use AI, we follow strong standards for privacy, safety, and ethics. Clinical expertise and human judgment remain at the center of every care decision.
What is AI in healthcare?
Artificial intelligence (AI) helps us use data to support care by identifying risks earlier, streamlining documentation, and quickly finding important information. This allows care teams to focus more time on patients.
You may already be familiar with AI through tools like conversational assistants or automated text generation. At Inova, all AI tools are HIPAA-compliant and follow strict standards for privacy, security, and appropriate use.
AI does not make decisions about your care – your clinicians do. AI helps clinicians by highlighting information so care teams can make informed decisions and provide safe, high-quality care.
Your privacy and safety come first
We carefully review every AI tool before we use it.
Patient privacy, data security, and safety are at the center of how we evaluate AI.
We review AI tools to make sure they are appropriate, ethical, accurate, and aligned with Inova’s mission and values. These reviews include input from experts in healthcare, technology, compliance, and quality, as well as representatives from our care teams.
We also follow federal and state regulations and conduct cybersecurity and privacy reviews to align with industry best practices.
Our approach to responsible AI
These are our guiding principles for evaluating and implementing AI tools:
- Transparency: Inova requires clear information from vendors about how AI systems are designed, trained, and intended to function in clinical and operational settings.
- Ethics: We apply AI in ways that support patient well-being, uphold professional standards, and align with Inova’s mission and values.
- Accountability: Our practices maintain human oversight of AI-enabled decisions and establish clear responsibility for the governance of AI solutions.
- Fairness: Inova assesses AI tools for potential bias and evaluates their ability to perform effectively across diverse patient populations and care settings.
- Explainability: We prioritize AI integration that provides understandable outputs so clinicians and staff can appropriately interpret and act on results.
- Reliability: Inova monitors AI solutions to ensure consistent, accurate performance over time as conditions evolve.
How Inova uses AI
AI supports Inova’s care teams, patients, and operations in several ways:
- Intelligent documentation: with patient awareness and appropriate safeguards, AI can help capture notes during patient visits and add them to the electronic health record.
- Health system operations: AI tools can help anticipate patient needs and support better planning across the health system. This helps ensure the right teams and resources are available when and where patients need them most.
- Workforce support: Secure, governed AI tools give staff a way to quickly find information, draft communications, and get answers to operational questions – all within their workflow.