The continuous development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has immense potential to optimize and enhance healthcare operations and outcomes. However promising, the use of AI in healthcare also comes with significant ethical considerations. This presents us at a very critical tipping point of risk vs reward. As we stand on the cusp of process advancements, it is crucial to explore the ethical considerations that accompany the advancements in AI to ensure these transformative technologies are harnessed responsibly.
POtential Uses of AI:
Through advanced algorithms and machine learning, AI systems can analyze vast amounts of medical data, assisting healthcare professionals in optimizing processes such as:
- Diagnosis: AI can analyze medical images and data to help doctors diagnose earlier and identify treatments, which can improve patient outcomes.
- Treatment Planning: AI can create personalized treatment plans for patients, leading to more effective and targeted action.
- Drug Discovery: AI can be used to screen potential new drugs and to identify targets for drug development, creating new and more effective treatments for diseases.
- Healthcare Administration: AI can be used to automate tasks such as medical coding, transcription, and patient scheduling, which in turn frees healthcare workers to spend more time on patient care.
Risks of AI and Ethical Considerations:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the healthcare industry. While AI-powered tools are seemingly able to impact the healthcare industry by improving patient care and providing some relief to overburdened providers, the use also raises several ethical concerns.
Here are some of the key ethical considerations of AI in healthcare:
- Bias: AI algorithms are trained on data, and if that data is biased, the algorithm will be biased as well. AI bias will be extremely difficult if not impossible to detect and root out, given that bias is often inherent, systematic, and invisible[1]. This could lead to AI systems that unintentionally and even unknowingly discriminate against certain groups of people, such as racial or ethnic minorities.
- Privacy: AI systems collect and use large amounts of patient data. This data could be used beneficially to identify patients, track their health history, and make predictions about their future health. However, it is important to ensure that patient data is kept confidential and secure. Increased data collection inherently increases the risk of an unintentional privacy breach.
- Accuracy: It is important to ensure that AI systems are accurate and reliable before they are solely used to make decisions about patient care. It’s important to note also, that this may never be the case. Despite all efforts, AI systems cannot provide perfect accuracy owing to different sources of error[2]. The AI systems can make mistakes, which could lead to misdiagnosis or incorrect treatment, especially if being relied upon too heavily for the end results.
- Transparency: Several stakeholder groups spoke to the need for transparency and clarity in the development and use of health care AI[3]. It is important to understand how AI systems work and how they make decisions. This will help to ensure that patients can trust AI systems and that they are not used to make decisions without patient consent.
- Accountability: Those who develop and use AI systems should be held accountable for their actions. This means that developers should be responsible for the accuracy of the systems and the consequences of their decisions. It is futile and illogical to hold the machine responsible, and it is unreasonable for the surgeon to bear full responsibility for AI-driven errors[4]. So where then is accountability placed in instances where issues arise?
- The Role of Humans: As AI systems become more sophisticated, it is important to consider the role of humans in healthcare. Will humans still be responsible for making decisions about patient care, or will AI systems eventually take over this role? If nothing else, patients will lose empathy, kindness, and appropriate behavior when dealing with robotic physicians and nurses because these robots do not possess human attributes such as compassion[5]. While potential is there to streamline efforts, it needs to be reaffirmed that AI will not be used in place of humans, but rather in cooperation with humans.
- The Cost of AI: AI systems can be expensive to develop and deploy. This could lead to disparities in healthcare access, as people in low-income communities may not have access to AI-powered tools. There are also training costs associated with implementing AI. Those responsible for utilizing AI-powered solutions will need to be trained on functionality and become comfortable with the use prior to implementing into the treatment process. This time spent on training is not only an expense to the organization, but an expense to the end-user as individuals may face appointment delays due to staff being assigned to hours of training instead of patient care.
- The Impact on Jobs: As AI systems automate tasks, it is possible that some jobs in the healthcare industry will be lost. There are many tasks that could, and potentially should, be facilitated by AI. Freeing up time by creating more efficient administration activity processes through AI will allow providers the opportunity to focus more directly on patient-care, however, it will also impact individuals who are assigned solely to administrative roles within organizations. This could lead to job displacement and economic hardship for those specific healthcare workers.
The ethical considerations of AI in healthcare are complex and evolving. If patients and clinicians do not trust AI tools, their successful integration into clinical practice will ultimately fail[6]. It is important to carefully consider these issues as AI continues to be used in healthcare.
IMplementing AI in Real Processes
To build a roadmap for incorporating AI into your organization’s operations, consider both short-term and long-term goals. Begin by identifying specific AI use cases that align with your organizational objectives and can deliver tangible benefits in the short term, without posing ethical threats.
Simultaneously, invest in long-term planning by exploring emerging AI technologies and envisioning their potential impact on healthcare. This forward-thinking approach will enable you to fully consider the risk versus reward, while providing time for your organization to plan, adapt, and embrace future advancements.
The integration of AI into healthcare brings immense potential and transformative power. However, it is crucial to identify checkpoints where human interaction is indispensable for decision-making, like consideration of ethical principles. Collaboration between stakeholders, including healthcare professionals, data scientists, and ethicists, will be crucial in building a comprehensive roadmap that addresses ethical concerns.
11TEN’s Role in the Future of Ethical AI
11TEN fosters an Ecosystem of diverse healthcare players, all of whom offer varied perspectives, yet shared goals on transforming the future of healthcare. The connection between these stakeholders ensures that problems and issues, like ethical considerations in healthcare, can be looked at from a broad and comprehensive viewpoint. The 11TEN team is capable of making the right connections and leading projects that will truly impact healthcare. In this case, by exploring the right way to integrate AI technologies, there is true potential to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and patient outcomes.
[1] https://medicine.yale.edu/news/yale-medicine-magazine/article/hard-choices-ai-in-health-care/
[2] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12911-020-01332-6
[3] https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/digital/advancing-health-care-ai-through-ethics-evidence-and-equity
[4] https://www.facs.org/for-medical-professionals/news-publications/news-and-articles/bulletin/2023/february-2023-volume-108-issue-2/ethical-concerns-grow-as-ai-takes-on-greater-decision-making-role/
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8826344/
[6] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128184387000125