The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Food and Drug Administration are partnering to launch an interagency testing ground for healthcare-related artificial intelligence tools.

VA Undersecretary for Health Shereef Elnahal announced the news during the Veterans Health Administration Innovation Conference on Wednesday, saying the agencies are establishing a joint artificial intelligence health lab to evaluate promising emerging technologies.

Elnahal said the lab will serve as an asset to federal agencies and the private sector “to be able to test AI applications in a virtual lab environment to make sure not only that they work, but that they’re safe and effective for veterans and patients ,” but that they also “adhere to trusted principles of AI.”

President Joe Biden signed a executive order in October 2023, which outlined government guidelines for the safe, secure and reliable adoption and use of new AI capabilities. Wednesday’s announcement came on one year anniversary of issuing the order.

In an interview with Nextgov/FCW on the sidelines of the conference, Elnahal said the lab would make sure “there’s a check in the process so that ultimately we don’t violate these principles.”

“It’s essentially a place where you get a quick but effective assessment — from the FDA’s point of view and the VA’s point of view — of a potential new application of generative AI to, number one, make sure it works ,” he added, calling the combined safety and usability testing. “a very great power.”

Elnahal also said the lab’s virtual setup will allow AI technologies to be evaluated in an environment that meets the executive order’s safety and security requirements.

“As long as they go through the right security protocols, we would essentially be inviting parties to test their technology with a fenced VA data set that poses no risk of contagion to our real systems, but is still informative. and simulated,” he said.

The VA and FDA have reached an agreement to launch the lab and are now working on the final details to establish the virtual proving ground — a process that Elnahal said will likely take about six months.

In a video message shared at the conference, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf called the joint testing environment “the first intergovernmental laboratory for artificial intelligence for health” and added that it will be based at the VA to provide “an avenue for the development of approaches for evaluating safety and performance metrics. of AI healthcare products for product developers nationwide.”