What Qualified Health does
Founded in 2024, Qualified Health gives health care organizations the tools to safely build, test, and run generative AI applications. It lets a health system set organization-wide rules for privacy, security, and safety; test AI tools before and after they go live; automatically block unwanted behavior; and track how the tools perform and pay off. The founder built a similar safety platform that was acquired by Waymo, the self-driving car company, and is still in use there today.
The goal: help safety-net plans and providers use AI that is safe and trustworthy, so the communities they serve are protected as these tools spread.
Why this matters
Health systems are under financial pressure, and generative AI can ease the workload that drives staff burnout. But it is hard to evaluate and riskier to deploy than older software. The rules built for medical software assume predictable behavior, and generative AI does not behave predictably. It produces new and varied outputs that need constant testing and watching.
Staff are already using these tools on their own. Surveys show 75% of knowledge workers use generative AI, and 78% bring their own AI tools to work. Unmanaged use can lead to data leaks, HIPAA fines, and lost trust between patients and providers. A written policy alone will not protect against these risks.
The impact
Qualified Health has contracts with five health system partners, including academic medical centers, community hospitals, and nonprofit public safety-net systems. The company has not yet sold in California, and Innovation Fund team members will work with them to find and support a safety-net partner.
Founder: Justin Norden, MD, MBA, MPhil
Co-founder and CEO of Trustworthy AI, which was acquired by Waymo, Google’s self-driving car company. Dr. Norden was also a partner at GSR Ventures, focused on early-stage AI health investments; a member of the health care team at Apple; and a co-founder of the Stanford Center for Digital Health. He served as an adjunct professor at Stanford Medicine, teaching digital health, and AI in medicine.
Why CHCF cares
CHCF is working to support responsible AI adoption in the safety net. There is a real risk that safety-net plans and providers fall behind on these tools, which would widen the gaps in care for communities that already face the biggest barriers.
Doing this well takes more than good intentions. It takes the tools to deploy AI that works reliably, treats people fairly, and does no harm. Qualified Health provides the infrastructure to govern, test, guard, and monitor AI systems, so safety-net organizations can adopt these tools with the technical and ethical safeguards their communities deserve
See the Innovation Fund FAQ to learn more about program-related investments at the California Health Care Foundation and how we reinvest profits in our mission-related work.