Mount Sinai builds health-AI policy index

Mount Sinai researchers said on June 1 that they built a public database to track the fast-growing and fragmented rules shaping artificial intelligence in health care. The tool, called the Health & AI Policy Index, or HAPI, catalogs 240 health-care AI policies published between 2016 and 2025, according to Mount Sinai and the paper published in *npj Digital Medicine*. The authors said the goal was to give hospitals, policymakers and researchers a clearer view of how oversight is developing as AI moves into patient care, diagnostics, administrative work and clinical decision support. They said the current landscape is spread across regulators, governments, standards bodies and institutional guidance rather than a single governing framework. ### What exactly did the researchers build? The Health & AI Policy Index is a structured database that aggregates legislation, executive actions, regulatory guidance, international frameworks and voluntary standards related to AI in health care, according to Mount Sinai and coverage of the study. Entries are tagged by themes, stakeholder groups and impact level, and linked back to source text, with official sources prioritized where available. The paper analyzed a January 1, 2026 snapshot of the index containing 240 policies. (mountsinai.org) Will Moss, the study’s lead author and a health care AI policy intern at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said the project was meant to make the policy environment easier to follow. “Artificial intelligence is moving into health care faster than many organizations can fully evaluate or govern it,” Moss said in the Mount Sinai release. He also said HAPI was designed to make health care AI governance “more accessible and understandable.” (mountsinai.org) ### What did the first snapshot show? The *npj Digital Medicine* abstract said transparency-oriented advisory instruments dominated the January 1, 2026 snapshot, while equity and safety were usually addressed within broader governance requirements. The same abstract said obligations fell mainly on providers, regulators and developers. Mount Sinai said the broader finding was that oversight efforts are accelerating worldwide, but no unified framework exists for how AI should be deployed, monitored and governed in clinical settings. (mountsinai.org) The researchers said that fragmentation could create operational and compliance problems for health systems trying to integrate AI responsibly. Mount Sinai said the policies develop through a patchwork of regulations, institutional guidance, technical standards and policy initiatives rather than through a centralized system. (nature.com) ### Why does that matter for hospitals and clinicians? Girish N. Nadkarni, Mount Sinai’s chief AI officer and the paper’s senior author, said successful adoption depends on more than deploying tools. “It also depends on strong oversight, internal governance structures, and clear accountability around how these technologies are used,” Nadkarni said in the Mount Sinai release. Mount Sinai said the study points to a growing role for academic medical centers and large health systems in shaping real-world governance practices as adoption accelerates. (mountsinai.org) The study’s framing also points to a practical training issue for clinical staff: approved uses, limits and escalation paths are not always obvious when governance is scattered across multiple policy sources. That is an inference from the study’s findings about fragmented oversight and implementation challenges, not a separate claim by the authors. (mountsinai.org) ### Who is behind the project? Will Moss is identified by Mount Sinai as the lead author and by other coverage as the founder and editor of HAPI, a public, noncommercial resource hosted by Mount Sinai’s Windreich Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health. Nadkarni is chair of that department, director of the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health, and chief AI officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, according to Mount Sinai. (mountsinai.org) Medical Xpress reported that Moss developed the project while drawing on work in AI policy and governance at Mount Sinai and prior internships in federal and state government affairs. Professor Sean Nicholson said in that report that policy research of that kind would become increasingly important as AI reshapes health care. ### Where does the work go next? (mountsinai.org) The paper appeared online on June 1 in *npj Digital Medicine* under the title “Mapping AI regulation in health care with the Health & AI Policy Index.” Mount Sinai and related coverage said the index is public and interactive, with filtering and trend-analysis functions intended to help users follow new policy developments across jurisdictions and stakeholder groups. (nature.com) (medicalxpress.com)