Ethics of AI use in healthcare

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Introduction

Artificial intelligence is a rapidly advancing technology that is making its appearance into many facets of the workforce, including healthcare. Artificial intelligence has its promises for improving the healthcare experience of caretakers and patients alike. However, due to the rational and logical background of artificial intelligence, there have been ethical and moral debates and questions regarding the introduction of artificial intelligence into an ethic-heavy field such as healthcare.

Patient Confidentiality

Patient Confidentiality may be compromised due to the introduction of artificial intelligence into healthcare. Artificial Intelligence has many traits such as machine learning and can potentially be used to access medical databases, posing a danger to protected patient information. Medical and patient documents are extremely important and protected under HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), it is important to ensure that this act is never breached, as there are significant consequences for the patient and the perpetrator. Fortunately, AI are starting to implement regulations to how they are used, preventing prompts that can break medical confidentiality. However, there is always a loophole to every regulation, so patient confidentiality is a big worry for those planning to implement artificial intelligence systems into healthcare. (AMA, 2019)

AI Algorithmic Bias

In clinical trials, accurate, unbiased, and complete data is important to allow for optimal formulations of new conclusions in healthcare. Unfortunately, some of the data from clinical trials may rarely be incomplete, dated, or inaccurate. AI has the potential to have algorithmic bias, in which AI "selects" for a group of datasets correlating to one aspect, leaving out underrepresented and potentially significant data. This can be dangerous, having the potential to alter the entire course of healthcare towards inaccuracy, if not recognized quickly. This is why using appropriate algorithms that are objective and free from inaccuracy and holes is crucial in maintaining truth in healthcare. (Frontiers in Surgery, 2022)

Safety and Well-being

Due to the completely objective nature of artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence can be prone to provide prompts that can be potentially harmful, illogical, or contrary to what is expected. It is the responsibility of the developer of the artificial intelligence to establish and regularly update constraints to meet safety, accuracy, and efficacy standards to be implemented in healthcare. (WHO, 2021)

Conclusion

Healthcare is rapidly changing, due to the introduction of technological advancements such as artificial intelligence. While artificial intelligence can take place or be used in conjunction with normal healthcare operations, there are various ethical considerations. Confidentiality, bias, and safety are topics that healthcare managers need to discuss about before implementing such a novel and rapidly evolving technology in a grounded system of ethics and morals.

References

American Medical Association. (2019, February). Ethical dimensions of using artificial intelligence in health care. Journal of Ethics, 21(2), 121-126. Retrieved from https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/ethical-dimensions-using-artificial-intelligence-health-care/2019-02

Frontiers in Surgery. (2022). Impact of Robotic Surgery on Patient Outcomes. Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsurg.2022.862322/full

World Health Organization. (2021, June 28). WHO issues first global report on AI in health and six guiding principles for its design and use. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news/item/28-06-2021-who-issues-first-global-report-on-ai-in-health-and-six-guiding-principles-for-its-design-and-use