ECRI released its Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2025 list, identifying the top risk in healthcare. Also making the list are supplemental oxygen and AI.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways:
- ECRI Releases 2025 Health Technology Hazards List: The annual report identifies the top 10 technology risks in healthcare, focusing on patient safety and strategies to mitigate these hazards.
- Home-Use Medical Devices and Supplemental Oxygen Risks: Fire hazards from supplemental oxygen and unmet technology support needs for home care patients rank high on the list.
- AI-Enabled Technologies Pose Significant Risks: Artificial intelligence tops the list, with concerns about misleading outputs, embedded biases, and the potential for harm if not properly assessed and managed.
ECRI released its Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2025 list, putting artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare applications at the top of the list. ECRI, a global healthcare safety nonprofit organization, cautions that while AI has the potential to improve efficiency and outcomes, it poses significant risks to patients if not properly assessed and managed.
ECRI’s annual Top 10 Health Technology Hazards report identifies threats to quality patient care and strategies to mitigate risks.
AI has expanded from its early applications in medical imaging to influence virtually every area of healthcare, including diagnosis, documentation, and appointment scheduling. Even AI applications involving ancillary systems, which are not regulated as medical devices, can have a profound impact on patient care, ECRI experts say.
“The promise of artificial intelligence’s capabilities must not distract us from its risks or its ability to harm patients and providers,” says Marcus Schabacker, MD, PhD, president and chief executive officer of ECRI, in a release. “Balancing innovation in AI with privacy and safety will be one of the most difficult, and most defining, endeavors of modern medicine.”
ECRI experts say AI systems can produce false or misleading results, or “hallucinations,” and the quality of their output can vary across different patient populations. AI models can perpetuate any bias built into them, posing significant risks for underrepresented and historically marginalized communities.
“AI is only as good as the data it is given and the guardrails that govern its use,” says Schabacker, in a release. “Healthcare stakeholders at all levels must think critically about the integration of AI, as they would with any new technology.”
Rounding out the list are technology hazards identified in-home care and acute care settings, information security applications, and the medical device supply chain. ECRI’s Top 10 Health
Technology Hazards for 2025, in rank order, are:
- Risks with AI-enabled health technologies
- Unmet technology support needs for home care patients
- Vulnerable technology vendors and cybersecurity threats
- Substandard or fraudulent medical devices and supplies
- Fire risk from supplemental oxygen
- Dangerously low default alarm limits on anesthesia units
- Mishandled temporary holds on medication orders
- Poorly managed infusion lines
- Harmful medical adhesive products
- Incomplete investigations of infusion system incidents
