Advocacy Alert: Shaping the Future of Biomedical AI: NIH Seeks Input on New Strategy with Implications for Telehealth

July 10, 2025

via Center for Connected Health Policy

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is crafting an ambitious institute-wide strategy to guide its use and development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies—and they are now seeking public input. Through its recently issued Request for Information (RFI): Inviting Comments on the NIH Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy, the NIH is calling on researchers, health systems, developers, and stakeholders across sectors to help shape the direction of biomedical AI over the coming decade. The deadline for submitting comments is July 15, 2025.

As AI plays an increasingly central role in clinical decision-making, data analysis, and operational workflows—including telehealth—the strategy will influence how NIH resources, policies, and programs support innovation while ensuring safety, trust, and equity. With telehealth's growth fueled by both pandemic-driven necessity and long-term shifts in care delivery, this strategic planning effort could have a direct impact on how AI is integrated into virtual care environments.

The NIH's proposed AI roadmap envisions a trajectory from current data-driven analytics to semi-autonomous agents, and ultimately, to advanced biomedical "AI beings" capable of hypothesis generation, reproducibility studies, and continuous learning. While futuristic in concept, this framework is grounded in practical needs—improving patient outcomes, accelerating research, and modernizing operations.

For full details on what NIH is looking for, see the complete RFI document. Responses to the NIH RFI should be submitted to ai-rfi@nih.gov by July 15, 2025. Stakeholders are encouraged to organize their input using the seven thematic categories outlined in the notice.

Read the full announcement here.

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