A scoping review of reporting gaps in FDA-approved AI medical devices.

Muralidharan, Vijaytha; Adewale, Boluwatife Adeleye; Huang, Caroline J; Nta, Mfon Thelma; Ademiju, Peter Oluwaduyilemi; Pathmarajah, Pirunthan; Hang, Man Kien; Adesanya, Oluwafolajimi et al. · NPJ Digit Med · 2024

review · Level V

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Abstract

Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI/ML) models in healthcare may exacerbate health biases. Regulatory oversight is critical in evaluating the safety and effectiveness of AI/ML devices in clinical settings. We conducted a scoping review on the 692 FDA-approved AI/ML-enabled medical devices approved from 1995-2023 to examine transparency, safety reporting, and sociodemographic representation. Only 3.6% of approvals reported race/ethnicity, 99.1% provided no socioeconomic data. 81.6% did not report the age of study subjects. Only 46.1% provided comprehensive detailed results of performance studies; only 1.9% included a link to a scientific publication with safety and efficacy data. Only 9.0% contained a prospective study for post-market surveillance. Despite the growing number of market-approved medical devices, our data shows that FDA reporting data remains inconsistent. Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics are underreported, exacerbating the risk of algorithmic bias and health disparity.