Founding members span big tech, healthcare, payers and patient groups to define what a trusted AI-driven care journey looks like.
BOSTON, January 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Yesterday, the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) announced the launch of Evolving reliable, high-impact AI care navigationa new multi-stakeholder initiative bringing together leaders in technology, healthcare delivery, patient advocacy, life sciences and policy to accelerate the responsible adoption of AI-powered care navigation at scale.
Although founding members are already participating, DiMe is actively inviting other organizations to join this effort as it unfolds. This initiative is designed to be shaped by the field at a time when standards, evidence, and expectations for AI-based care navigation are still being developed.
Navigating healthcare is exhausting. Patients struggle to make appointments, get referrals, move between providers, and manage their insurance. These barriers delay care, worsen outcomes, and widen inequities. More and more patients are turning to AI to address these challenges because the system leaves them with little choice, but the solutions and processes available today are far from optimized. At the same time, health systems and payers are forced to do more with fewer resources, while patients continue to bear the consequences of failed care coordination.
“Patients don’t view healthcare as algorithms or policy frameworks,” said Jennifer Goldsack, CEO of DiMe. “They experience it as delays, confusion and stress at times when they are already vulnerable. This project exists because patients are already using AI to navigate care today. Our responsibility is to ensure these tools are reliable, patient-centered and evidence-based, while giving organizations the confidence to scale what actually works.
Patient use of AI for care navigation is increasingly widespread, highlighting both the urgency and risk of innovation that goes beyond inclusion and accountability.
An important step in the advancement of DiMe’s Health 2030 vision of a sustainable health system in the digital age, this effort is directly based on The playbook: Implementing AI in Healthcaredeveloped with Google for Health and more than 30 partners to help organizations identify high-value AI use cases and responsibly scale pilots to scale. Building on the high-value AI use cases identified in The playbookThis initiative focuses on one of the most immediate and consequential areas of impact on patients: care navigation. This work on AI-based patient navigation is the first in DiMe’s portfolio of AI projects for 2026, with an initiative to operationalize AI governance launching later this quarter.
Agencies, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), have emphasized the need for interoperable, patient-centered digital tools, as well as clearer expectations for governance, accountability, and performance monitoring as AI becomes integrated into care delivery. And as these political tailwinds grow, the field needs shared, credible evidence about how AI-based navigation works in real care settings, for real patients, under real constraints. The Scaling Trusted, High-Impact AI Care Navigation project will translate this need into open, evidence-based resources that the field can use now.
Founding members include organizations spanning the technology, healthcare delivery, payer, and patient navigation industries, reflecting the voices of patients, clinicians, health systems, payers, and innovators working to simplify care journeys without compromising trust or safety.
Intel has taken the lead in this work as a presenting sponsor alongside other founding partners including the American Osteopathic Association, Association of Cancer Care Centers, Boston Children’s Hospital, Carey, Carna Health, Google for Health, Mass General Brigham, National Health Council, Stanford Medicine Department of Pediatrics, Swept AI, Talamel Health Technologies, UC Irvine Institute for Future Health and Visana Health.
“Technology is evolving rapidly, but without alignment on trust, utility and real impact, we risk repeating the cycle of promising innovations that never scale,” said Alex Flores, general manager of Intel’s healthcare and life sciences business. “This project brings together the entire ecosystem to build the evidence, frameworks and shared understanding needed to make AI-based navigation work for patients and for the healthcare system as a whole.
As AI increasingly shapes how people access and navigate care, the question is no longer whether AI-driven navigation will evolve, but whether it will do so in a way that earns trust and provides real value. Organizations joining this initiative will help define the standards and evidence that will shape AI-driven care navigation for years to come.
About the Society for Digital Medicine (DiMe)
The Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the safe, effective, equitable and ethical use of digital technologies to redefine healthcare and improve lives. DiMe offers open access resources, multi-stakeholder collaborations, and evidence-based frameworks to accelerate the responsible digitalization of healthcare. Learn more about www.dimesociety.org.
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SOURCE Digital Medicine Society (DiMe)
