UMass Chan partners with incubator to test AI healthcare tools for safety, efficacy

Photo I Courtesy of UMass Chan Medical School UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester

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As artificial intelligence expands its presence within health care, UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester has partnered with a Virginia-based incubator to evaluate AI products to promote innovation and establish guidelines for AI deployment in patient care.

The collaboration includes a two-year partnership between UMass Chan and Red Cell Partners, an incubator and investment firm focused on developing and launching technology from startups, according to a Wednesday press release from the university.

Through the agreement, Red Cell Partners will provide the medical school with AI healthcare products to perform rapid-cycle, real-world efficacy and safety evaluations. Additionally, the partnership seeks to bolster the university’s business model to ascertain the turn-around time to create competitive AI startups within the healthcare sector, Dr. Adrian Zai, co-leader of UMass Chan’s Health AI Assurance Laboratory, said in the release.

“This collaboration enables a rapid yet rigorous pathway to develop, test and evaluate AI tools using real-world clinical data,” said Zai, who also serves as the school’s associate professor of population & quantitative health sciences and chief research informatics officer. “Our shared goal is to quickly identify which AI tools are safe, effective, and ready for real-world health care challenges, and which are not.”

In April 2024, UMass Chan launched its Health AI Assurance Laboratory, created with the distinct purpose of evaluating processes and impacts of health AI technology. At the time of its creation, the lab was the first of its kind in Massachusetts.

“Our mission is to grow that regional trustworthy health AI industry by empowering this ecosystem, and we want to bring in tools with industry partners and also train the next generation of both healthcare workers and also engineers to develop tools with fairness built in from the start,” David McManus, chair and professor of medicine at UMass Chan, said at the launch.

Red Cell Partners was drawn to the partnership with UMass Chan in part due to its faculty, innovative approach, and mission to care for underserved populations, Dr. Timothy Ferris, president of the Red Cell’s Healthcare Practice division, said in the Wednesday release.

“We’re on a mission to make health care better. By working together, we’re refining and making the technology that clinicians and hospital systems want,” Ferris said. “UMass Chan doesn’t just talk the talk of serving the underserved. They do it day in and day out, and those are the types of people that we want to partner with.”

Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.