KIRO 7 News Seattle: Federal officials want to speed up clinical trials - by using A.I

Well, the Federal Drug Administration now wants to shake up clinical trials using AI. The goal here is potentially cut years off the timeline to develop new drugs much faster. But what does that actually look like, and is it safe? KIRO 7's Madeline Ottilie is looking into that process. You don't know when you might need it, but when you do... Having access to a cancer drug six months earlier could be the difference between life or death. Right now, new drugs can take 10 to 12 years to develop. The FDA wants to use AI to potentially chop years off the timeline. Very few people know that 45% of the drug development time is dead time. Late April, the FDA launched the first real-time clinical trials where data is imported and reviewed in real time.

AI will pull data together and look for key data signals. It's revolutionary. This time really matters. Dr. Nikki Byrne says AI is already being used in healthcare. She uses it with her patients at Concierge Longevity Medical Service Optispan. “We're doing genetics. We're doing wearables. So we're getting sleep data. We're using AI already to aggregate that data to help me find the trends.” But she acknowledges it could come with risks without the right guardrails in place. “But I think the really big risk is the over-reliance on AI. So having someone not using their critical thinking.”

As Madeline Ottilie reporting there, and we have details for how you can submit your thoughts with the FDA about this initiative. Those are on KIRO7.com