Ethical Considerations in AI-Driven Healthcare

By Sarah MooreReviewed by Lily Ramsey, LLM

The rise of AI in healthcare
AI advancements
Protecting patient data
Addressing algorithmic bias
Informed decision-making
Ethics for healthcare providers
Ethical frameworks
Finding the right balance
Resources 
Further reading

The rise of AI in healthcare

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has been increasingly integrated into healthcare, representing a groundbreaking shift in the way that diseases are diagnosed, treated, and managed. AI has the potential to revolutionize the healthcare sector by leveraging advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques to deliver novel capabilities in data analysis, clinical decision-making, and personalized treatment options.

As the use of AI becomes more prevalent in healthcare, ethical questions will arise and become increasingly critical. For example, questions relating to data privacy and security, potential biases in AI algorithms, the issue of maintaining patient autonomy and informed consent, how the professional responsibilities of healthcare professionals may need to adapt, and what regulations and guidelines will need to be established to ensure the use of AI in healthcare remains ethical.

Here, we take a deep dive into how AI is transforming the healthcare sector, what ethical dilemmas it raises, and how these might be addressed.

Image Credit: chayanuphol/Shutterstock.com

AI advancements

AI has already become used within healthcare in numerous applications, although its full potential is yet to be realized. At this early stage, this integration has already brought about a range of benefits. For example, AI-powered systems a capable of analyzing vast datasets including medical records and diagnostics images, allowing them to help healthcare professionals in making more accurate diagnoses in short time periods.

Additionally, AI is being used to analyze patient-specific data to tailor treatment plans. AI will be crucial in the development of personalized medicine. Predictive analytics, where patient outcomes and disease progression are forecast to improve long-term management and identify high-risk patients, will also greatly benefit from AI.

Other fields of healthcare that stand to benefit from AI include drug discovery and research, telemedicine and remote monitoring, treatment decision support, resource optimization, and the automation of administrative tasks.

The ethics of integrating AI in healthcare must be considered, however, before it can reach its full potential in this industry.

Protecting patient data

There are a number of ethical concerns relating to the collection and handling of patient data in AI-driven healthcare. For example, the confidentiality and security of patient information must be ensured to protect patients from the negative impacts of data breaches and unauthorized access.

Additionally, patients must be told about how their data will be used in AI applications, it should not be assumed that they know the implications of sharing their data with AI systems and should be given the option to opt out.

With the growing use of AI in healthcare comes the emergence of new roles and responsibilities for those working in healthcare. It must be understood who is accountable for errors in storing and sharing data collected by AI applications. Guidelines must be established and accountability must be understood.

Addressing algorithmic bias

Unfortunately, biases can significantly impact AI algorithms used in healthcare. AI algorithms can exacerbate racial and socioeconomic disparities that already exist in healthcare. If trained on raised data, algorithms can learn to recommend different treatment options for patients based on their membership to a certain group. This can perpetuate the problem of unequal access to healthcare. Some groups will end up being favored, while others will have poorer health outcomes.

Informed decision-making

There are several challenges involved in ensuring patient autonomy and obtaining informed consent in AI-driven healthcare. First, obtaining informed consent for AI systems demands clear and concise communication about how the AI will be used and what its potential impact may be. Patients may not fully understand how their data will be used by AI applications and this raises concerns surrounding data privacy.

Due to the rapid pace at which AI developments can happen, there is a key issue surrounding the expiration of informed consent and how to tackle this.

Ethics for healthcare providers

Healthcare professionals using AI tools have numerous responsibilities, and these may evolve as AI advances.

Healthcare professionals must ensure that healthcare decisions driven by AI tools align with the patient’s best interests. Human oversight of AI tools used in healthcare must be maintained, healthcare professionals must critically evaluate the recommendations given by AI tools to ensure they align with clinical expertise. Additionally, healthcare professionals must be transparent about the use of AI in healthcare. It is important that patients understand how AI tools are being leveraged to influence their care.

Ethical frameworks

Several regulations and ethical frameworks are currently used to help guide the use of AI in healthcare. Ongoing development of these regulations is needed, however, to address the rapidly evolving landscape.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) exists to set standards for the privacy and security of patients’ health data. In addition, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has its own set of regulations providing regulatory oversight on how software, such as AI applications, is used in healthcare. The EU has the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which establishes requirements for the handling of patient data used in AI tools.

Finding the right balance

It is important that a balance is struck between AI advancements in healthcare and the ethical considerations of using this technology in this field. The solution to this lies in ensuring that AI-driven technology provides benefits to patients without compromising their rights or well-being.

Resources

• Bajwa, J. et al. (2021) ‘Artificial Intelligence in healthcare: Transforming the practice of medicine’, Future Healthcare Journal, 8(2). doi:10.7861/fhj.2021-0095.
• Davenport, T. and Kalakota, R. (2019) ‘The potential for artificial intelligence in Healthcare’, Future Healthcare Journal, 6(2), pp. 94–98. doi:10.7861/futurehosp.6-2-94.
• No longer science fiction, AI and robotics are transforming healthcare [online]. PwC. Available at: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/healthcare/publications/ai-robotics-new-health/transforming-healthcare.html (Accessed November 2023)

Further reading 

• Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning in Medicine 

• What does ChatGPT mean for Healthcare?

• Role of Real-Time Data in Healthcare