FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Washington, D.C) January 21, 2025 – The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program and the Digital Health Research and Development Interagency Working Group (IWG), released the “Leveraging Foundation and Large Language Models for Health Workshop Report” to summarize key takeaways from the federal-only workshop held in July 2024.
Over 35 participants from six federal agencies took part in the workshop to explore artificial intelligence (AI), especially foundation and large language models (LLMs), in biomedical, public health, and healthcare research.
The goal of the workshop was to identify the opportunities and challenges for these AI models in health-related research and development (R&D) applications. AI has the power to be a transformative tool that can revolutionize health-related R&D if used properly; however, there are issues that need to be addressed to safely implement current foundation and LLMs in health-related R&D. The report identifies target areas, challenges, and opportunities that should be addressed in future digital health R&D and summarizes the key takeaways from the workshop.
For more information, please contact the NITRD National Coordination Office (NCO) at nco@nitrd.gov or visit www.nitrd.gov.
About the Subcommittee on Networking & Information Technology Research & Development
The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program has been the nation’s primary source of federally funded work on pioneering information technologies (IT) in computing, networking, and software since it was first established as the High-Performance Computing and Communications program following passage of the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991. The NITRD Subcommittee of the NSTC guides the multiagency NITRD Program in its work to provide the R&D foundations for ensuring continued U.S. technological leadership and for meeting the nation’s needs for advanced IT. The National Coordination Office (NCO) supports the NITRD Subcommittee and its Interagency Working Groups (https://www.nitrd.gov/about/).
About the Digital Health Research and Development Interagency Working Group (IWG)
The Digital Health R&D (DHRD) Interagency Working Group (IWG) aimed at improving the health of Americans by advancing technologies that support personalized health screening, monitoring, diagnosis, and treatment; disease prevention; emergency response; broad access to healthcare information and resources; and building and sustaining a diverse and highly skilled health IT workforce. The DHRD IWG reports investments across several Program Component Areas.