The AI Advisory Subcommittee was established under the auspices of the UTHealth Houston Information Technology Governance Council to provide guidance on the safe utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies within UTHealth Houston, ensuring alignment with federal and state laws and regulations. Our mandate is to advise and consult on the implementation of AI systems, emphasizing ethical considerations and legal compliance.
Purpose
This charter defines the role and responsibilities of the AI Advisory Subcommittee in facilitating the safe, ethical, and lawful use of AI technologies across UTHealth Houston.
Scope
The AI Advisory Subcommittee’s scope encompasses:
- Advising the community on the safe use of AI across UTHealth Houston.
- Making commercial AI tools available to our community in a HIPAA-compliant manner.
- Supporting translational AI research/application in clinical settings
- Issuing guidance on the acceptable use of AI for education, research, and clinical care.
Objectives
The objectives of the AI Advisory Subcommittee are:
- To create and maintain a comprehensive inventory of automated decision-making software.
- To launch a centralized AI website with relevant resources and information.
- To advise on updating Business Associate Agreements (BAAs), collaboration agreements, and data protection contractual language reflecting new AI considerations.
- To advise on any other future AI-related subjects or community questions.
Membership
Members are appointed by the chair with consultations with the deans to represent various disciplines and departments relevant to AI technology, including but not limited to legal, compliance, information technology, research, and clinical operations. The chair’s appointments shall complement the expertise of the existing Subcommittee members and may include individuals with specialized knowledge or experience in AI applications.
The Subcommittee is chaired by the Chief Information Officer of UTHealth Houston and co-chaired by the Director of User Experience and Support for Innovation, Projects, and Research.
Meetings
The AI Advisory Subcommittee shall meet monthly to discuss ongoing projects, address emerging issues, and review progress toward objectives. Additional meetings may be called by the chair as necessary.
Reporting
The AI Advisory Subcommittee shall provide regular updates and reports to the IT Governance Council detailing activities, recommendations, and outcomes. Reports shall be submitted quarterly.
Review and Amendments
This charter shall be reviewed annually by the AI Advisory Subcommittee to ensure its continued relevance and effectiveness. Amendments may be proposed by committee members to the chair.
Chair
- Amar Yousif, MBA
Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Co-Chair
- Dustan Brennan
Director, User Experience and Support, Innovation, Projects, and Research
McGovern Medical School
Membership
- Diarra Boye
Executive Director IT Finance and Business Services
- Bruce Butler, PhD
Professor, Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine
Vice President, Research and Technology
McGovern Medical School
- Martin Citardi, MD
Professor and Chair, Otorhinolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery
Vice Dean, Clinical Technology
Memorial Hermann Chair
McGovern Medical School
- Bassel Choucair
Associate Vice President and Deputy Chief Information Officer
McGovern Medical School
- Mary Dickerson, MBA
Associate Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer
- Jeffery Frost, PhD
Professor, Integrative Biology and Pharmacology
McGovern Medical School
Assistant Dean, Graduate Education
MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
- Richard Halpin, MEd, EdD
Director, Educational Technology
School of Dentistry
- Xiaoqian Jiang, PhD
Chair, Department of Health Data Science and Artificial Intelligence
Associate Vice President, Medical AI
Christopher Sarofim Family Professor in Biomedical Informatics and Bioengineering
McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics
- Yen-Chi Le, PhD
Executive Director, Innovation and Quality, Healthcare Transformation Initiatives
UT Physicians
- Chun-Teh Lee, DDS, DMsc, MS
Associate Professor, Periodontics and Dental Hygiene
School of Dentistry
- Tony Murry
Associate Vice President, IT Infrastructure
- Carolyn Pickering, PhD, RN
Professor, Research
Isla Carroll Turner Chair in Gerontological Nursing
Cizik School of Nursing
- Christina Solis, JD, MPH
Director of IT Governance Data and Privacy
- Susan Tortolero Emery, PhD
Professor, Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
Senior Associate Dean, Academic and Research Affairs
Guy S. Parcel Chair in Public Health
School of Public Health
- Christine Flynn Weaver, PhD
Director Licensing and New Venture Development
- Hulin Wu, PhD
Professor and Chair, Biostatistics and Data Science
Betty Wheless Trotter Professor
Dr. D.R. Seth Family Professor in Biostatistics
School of Public Health
- Guo-Qiang Zhang, PhD
Professor, Neurology
Distinguished Chair in Digital Innovation
McGovern Medical School
Vice President and Chief Data Scientist
Agenda:
- Meeting minute approval
- Educational subcommittee - Dr. Fenton
- Ensuring Nondiscrimination in the Use of AI - Christina Solis
- AI Hub update - Dr. Jiang / Dustan Brennan
- Collection of questions from council about upcoming legislation for governmental affairs
- Open Discussion.
Actions and Decisions
- Mary Dickerson moved to approve the minutes and Dr. Susan Fenton seconded.
- Fenton mentioned that will the help of Richard Halpin we will distribute the AI survey this week. Changed some wording awaiting some last-minute edits. Additionally, UT Southwestern is interested on the survey and collaborating as well.
- The survey will be widely distributed and working with public affairs to send it out.
- Christina Solis commented that in her presentation last week people were asking if surveys were asking about AI usages at institutions.
- The survey will be open until 2/19/25.
- Christina presented on nondiscrimination and AI:
- If AI is used in healthcare, there will be a need to assess it for discrimination.
- She recommended we create policies for review and what to do if we find discrimination.
- She also recommends creating a workgroup for writing these policies.
- The policy is archived on the HHS website, but she still recommends creating the group.
- GQ Zhang recommends waiting until the HHS is fully staffed and back going until we create the group.
- This will be a follow up item in next month’s meeting.
- Dustan gave a walkthrough of the AI Hub updates:
- We will add an FAQ for data usage.
- We will put the hub up for a vote in the next meeting.
- Weaver wants to add AI in IP course under the educational page.
- Jiang asked Dr. Weaver to supply some guidelines for IP
- Dustan will send Mary the link to the prototype see where we can add security.
- GQ Zhang spoke on Deepseek and its implications:
- Has the ability to be disruptive, he tested it and it had good reasoning and much more impressive than GPT.
- He feels it will change the paradigm on cost and fine tuning.
- He suggested the University may not want to highlight specific collaborations to avoid looking like as though we are biased toward one foundation model.
- Bassel Choucair mentioned that he wonders if this will make the list of prohibited software.
- Xiaoqian Jiang feels as though o1 still outperforms DeepSeek, but its approaching parity.
- Yen-Chi Le brought up two scenarios that she wanted the AI council perhaps to weigh in on. The main one was about a contract with a company using AI for patients’ mental health and how the disclosures and tools should be distributed.
- Valerie Bomben is working on guidelines for types of data and their usage with third parties that she will bring to a future meeting.
- Fenton presented the flyer for the AI survey, Dr. Weaver suggested the logo get updated before sending out.
