Emma Okonji
A recent report released by World Health Organisation (WHO), has identified the ethical challenges and risks with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare.
The report however gave six consensus principles on how to ensure that AI works for the public benefit of all countries.
It also contained a set of recommendations that can ensure the governance of Artificial Intelligence for health, maximizes the promise of the technology and holds all stakeholders in the public and private sector accountable and responsive to the healthcare of workers who will rely on these technologies and the communities and individuals whose health will be affected by its use.
The WHO guidance on Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence for Health is the product of 18 months of deliberations among leading experts in ethics, digital technology, law, human rights, as well as experts from Ministries of Health around the world.
“While new technologies that use Artificial Intelligence hold great promise to improve diagnosis, treatment, health research and drug development and to support governments carrying out public health functions, including surveillance and outbreak response, such technologies, according to the report, must put ethics and human rights at the heart of its design, deployment, and use, “it stated.
According to the report, scholars and healthcare professionals have debated ethical questions related to health and healthcare since the earliest days of medicine.
The report becomes the first global report on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare, issued by WHO.
Analyzing the report, the Director General for WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said: “Like all new technology, Artificial Intelligence holds enormous potential for improving the health of millions of people around the world, but like all technology it can also be misused and cause harm. This important new report provides a valuable guide for countries on how to maximize the benefits of AI, while minimizing its risks and avoiding its pitfalls.”
“Artificial intelligence can be, and in some wealthy countries is already being used to improve the speed and accuracy of diagnosis and screening for diseases; to assist with clinical care; strengthen health research and drug development, and support diverse public health interventions, such as disease surveillance, outbreak response, and health systems management, “Ghebreyesus further said.
The WHO boss further explained that AI could also empower patients to take greater control of their own health care and better understand their evolving needs. It could also enable resource-poor countries and rural communities, where patients often have restricted access to health-care workers or medical professionals, to bridge gaps in access to health services.
WHO’s new report however cautions against overestimating the benefits of AI for health, especially when it occurs at the expense of core investments and strategies required to achieve universal health coverage.
The report also pointed out that opportunities were linked to challenges and risks, including unethical collection and use of health data; biases encoded in algorithms, and risks of AI to patient safety, cybersecurity, and the environment.
The report also emphasizes that systems trained primarily on data collected from individuals in high-income countries may not perform well for individuals in low- and middle-income settings.
The six principles suggested by the report to ensure that AI works for the public interest in all countries, in order to limit the risks and maximize the opportunities intrinsic to the use of AI for health, include: Protecting human autonomy; Promoting human well-being and safety and the public interest; Ensuring transparency, explainability and intelligibility; Fostering responsibility and accountability; Ensuring inclusiveness and equity; and Promoting AI that is responsive and sustainable.
