WVU Golisano’s Abigail Crawford to chair ATA AI workgroup

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes · Last updated: 16 October 2026

The American Telemedicine Association has appointed Abigail Crawford, who serves as chief advanced practice provider for pediatric telemedicine at WVU Medicine Golisano Children’s, to chair a national workgroup within its AI in Virtual Care Policy Initiative. Crawford will head one of three national working groups tasked with developing recommendations for federal agencies on the use of AI in virtual healthcare. The groups are scheduled to present their findings at the ATA EDGE Policy Conference in December, and those findings will contribute to the ATA’s advocacy priorities for 2027. This appointment connects a practicing pediatric telemedicine leader directly to national policy work on clinical AI.

Artificial intelligence has the potential to significantly impact healthcare by creating new opportunities to improve access to care and support clinicians and patients,

Abigail Crawford

What the appointment is and who was chosen

WVU Medicine Golisano Children’s announced that Abigail Crawford will lead a national working group created under the American Telemedicine Association’s new initiative. The announcement lists her qualifications as B.S.N., M.S.N., R.N., A.P.R.N., F.N.P.-B.C., and notes she serves as the health system’s chief advanced practice provider for pediatric telemedicine. The initiative, titled AI in Virtual Care Policy Initiative, aims to bring together clinicians, policy specialists and technologists to develop guidance for virtual-care deployments that incorporate artificial intelligence.

The ATA created multiple workstreams to break the policy task into focused pieces; Crawford will chair the one charged with influencing how federal agencies approach AI-enabled virtual care. Her selection places a practicing clinician who runs a pediatric telemedicine program in a position to translate operational experience — for example, the limits of remote specialist access and the needs of child patients — into policy recommendations.

What this working group will produce and its remit

The ATA has split the initiative into three national working groups so each can tackle a distinct set of policy questions. Crawford’s group is focused on federal agency and public policy frameworks that influence how AI tools are evaluated, approved and monitored for virtual care settings. The deliverable described in the announcement is a set of recommendations intended for federal agencies; these recommendations are meant to promote safe, effective and responsible use of AI in virtual healthcare.

Those recommendations will inform national advocacy and be translated into policy positions the ATA can carry to regulators and legislators. The American Telemedicine Association says the group will advise on frameworks for federal action rather than on proprietary product standards or certification schemes, indicating the focus will be on governance, oversight and patient-centered safeguards instead of device-level technical requirements.

Why a pediatric telemedicine leader matters to national AI policy

Crawford’s background in pediatric telemedicine at WVU Medicine Golisano Children’s gives the working group direct clinical perspective on how virtual care uses technology to expand access to specialty services. In the announcement she said that working in pediatric telemedicine has allowed her to see how technology can improve access for patients who otherwise face barriers to specialty care. That practical viewpoint matters because clinical workflows, consent with minors, family involvement and diagnostic limits in remote visits differ from adult ambulatory settings.

Putting a clinician with frontline telemedicine experience into a federal-policy-facing workstream changes the balance of voices that often predominate in standards work, which can be dominated by vendors or academic researchers. Crawford told the ATA that she hopes to bring ‘real-world perspective’ to discussions about how AI tools can support patients, providers and health systems, a stance likely to push recommendations toward operational viability as well as safety and equity.

Process, public milestones and how outcomes will be used

The announcement sets two public milestones: the workgroups will present outcomes at the ATA EDGE Policy Conference in December, and the work will inform ATA’s advocacy priorities for 2027. The December presentation is the immediate public checkpoint where draft recommendations will be exposed to conference attendees and ATA members for comment. After that meeting, the ATA will fold the workstreams’ outputs into a formal set of advocacy positions aimed at federal agencies and policymakers in 2027.

That sequence — draft at a December conference, then policy positions for the following year — is the route the ATA has chosen to move from expert discussion to advocacy. The ATA's announcement does not list individual member names beyond Crawford or give a precise December meeting date, making the conference appearance the first confirmed public venue where the group’s findings will be reviewed and debated.

How the initiative could change policy and practice

The bottom line

The selection of Abigail Crawford ties hands-on pediatric telemedicine experience to national policy work on AI in virtual care. The ATA’s process — three working groups producing recommendations, a public December presentation at ATA EDGE, and the shaping of advocacy priorities for 2027 — creates a clear route from operational insight to policy proposals. Key gaps remain: membership lists, conflict disclosures and specific publication dates. Those details will determine whether the resulting guidance is narrowly advisory or sufficiently concrete to change how federal agencies regulate AI in virtual healthcare.

What to watch

• Watch for Crawford and her group to present their recommendations at the ATA EDGE Policy Conference in December 2026.
• Watch for the American Telemedicine Association to publish its 2027 advocacy priorities after the December meeting; no publication date has been set.