The Utah Office of AI Policy presents its agenda on establishing trust and safety via regulation while fostering innovation through regulatory relief for AI in healthcare.
The Utah Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy (OAIP) represents a pioneering state-level initiative designed to balance innovation facilitation with responsible AI governance in regulated industries. Established within Utah's Department of Commerce, the Office operates under a mandate to develop evidence-based policy frameworks that promote technological advancement while safeguarding public health and consumer safety. The Office's approach to policy research emphasizes stakeholder engagement, scientific rigor, and iterative policy development. Following its 2025 agenda on AI in mental health counseling, the Office’s priorities for 2026 include a proactive agenda to systematically address critical questions regarding AI implementation in various healthcare settings, with particular attention to clinical decision support systems, remote healthcare services, transparency, and patient safety protocols. The Office's regulatory mitigation program represents a comprehensive approach to fostering AI innovation in healthcare through its Utah AI sandbox initiative, which provides regulatory relief for qualifying AI healthcare products. The application and review process includes initial expert and stakeholder consultation. The review process incorporates multiple assessment dimensions, including clinical safety evaluation, regulatory compliance analysis, data protection verification, and public health impact assessment. The presentation includes a walkthrough of recent successful sandbox applications for AI-in-healthcare products and services. The integration of AI technologies and telehealth practice presents transformative opportunities for healthcare delivery. For example, innovations can include various forms of comprehensive clinical decision support, autonomous AI decision making for a carefully scoped selection of healthcare services, and integrations with wearable fitness and wellness trackers. However, these technological advances also introduce complex challenges regarding data privacy, patient and provider transparency, and clinical liability. The successful integration of AI in telehealth requires careful consideration of technical and ethical dimensions alongside appropriate regulatory oversight. The 30-minute presentation will be followed by a 30-minute discussion during which the audience is invited to share their perspectives on how AI can contribute to expand remote-healthcare services in Utah safely and beneficially in collaboration with existing healthcare systems in the State. Dr. Alice Schwarze joined OAIP as Head of Research in 2024. She received a PhD in applied mathematics from the University of Oxford in 2019. Prior to joining the Utah AI policy office, she worked as a researcher and lecturer at UCLA, the University of Washington, and Dartmouth College, covering topics from computational neuroscience, data science for public health, and the mathematical foundations of artificial intelligence. In her current role, Dr. Schwarze leads the Office's research efforts that underlie the Office's issued guidance letters, policy recommendations, and the Office's assessment of the clinical safety and public-health benefits of AI-in-healthcare proposals in the Office's regulatory sandbox.
