Sponsor
David Schweikert
Representative · R-AZ
Representative · R-AZ
The bill would speed mammography workflow and encourage AI adoption in breast imaging, but it increases reliance on automated interpretations that raise patient-safety, privacy, and clinician-accountability concerns.
Patients getting mammograms and the hospitals that serve them: hospitals and imaging centers can use validated AI/ML systems to perform or document mammography interpretations, increasing throughput and reducing reporting delays for patients.
Hospitals and healthcare workers: removing the physician-signature requirement reduces administrative burden and may speed reporting and clinical workflow.
Hospitals and the healthcare workforce: recognizing AI/ML in standards could encourage adoption of diagnostic tools and innovation in breast imaging quality programs, potentially improving efficiency and quality over time.
Patients undergoing mammography: greater reliance on AI/ML interpretations without explicit physician sign-off could increase the risk of diagnostic errors and reduce clear clinical accountability.
Patients and health systems: broader deployment of AI/ML raises privacy and data-security risks for sensitive imaging data if robust safeguards and oversight are not required.
Radiologists and interpreting physicians: removing statutory physician-signature requirements may create uncertainty about oversight, liability, and professional accountability.
Based on analysis of 1 section of legislative text.
Updates mammography quality statute to allow machine-learning/AI systems to perform certain functions and removes a physician-signature requirement.
Official title: To amend the Public Health Service Act to update quality standards for mammography facilities for the use of AI systems, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 27, 2026 by David Schweikert · Last progress April 27, 2026
This bill updates federal mammography quality standards to explicitly allow machine-learning or artificial intelligence (AI/ML) systems to perform functions that the law previously described as performed by physicians, and it removes a requirement that certain mammography reports be "signed by the interpreting physician." The change broadens the set of allowed actors in mammography interpretation and eliminates the physician-signature formalism in the cited provisions. The amendment is narrowly focused on regulatory language in the Public Health Service Act governing mammography quality standards; it does not itself create new funding, nor does it specify implementation timelines or certification details for AI/ML systems.