This appeared last week:
https://www.miragenews.com/robust-rules-enable-ai-to-enhance-australian-1064459/
Robust Rules Enable AI to Enhance Australian Healthcare
Medical care delivered by human beings should never be replaced with Artificial Intelligence (AI), but AI technology can potentially achieve improved healthcare, the AMA said today.
The AMA’s first Position Statement on the use of AI in healthcare outlines a set of ethical and regulatory principles based on safety and equity which should be applied to the application of AI technologies in healthcare.
The position statement covers the development and implementation of AI in healthcare and supports regulation which protects patients, consumers, healthcare professionals and their data.
AMA President Professor Steve Robson said with appropriate policies and protocols in place, AI can assist in the delivery of improved healthcare, advancing our healthcare system, and the health of all Australians.
“The AMA sees great potential for AI to assist in diagnosis, for example, or recommending treatments and at transitions of care, but a medical practitioner must always be ultimately responsible for decisions and communication with their patients.
“There’s no doubt we are on the cusp of big changes AI can bring to the sector and this will require robust governance and regulation which is appropriate to the healthcare setting and engenders trust in the system.
“We’d like to see a national governance structure established to advise on policy development around AI in healthcare.
“Such a structure must include all health-sector stakeholders like medical practitioners, patients, AI developers, health informaticians, healthcare administrators and medical defence organisations.
“This will underpin how we carefully introduce AI technology into healthcare. AI tools used in healthcare must be co-designed, developed and tested with patients and medical practitioners and this should be embedded as a standard approach to AI in healthcare.
“Decisions about healthcare are the bedrock of the doctor-patient relationship and these will never be replaced by AI. People worry when they hear that machine learning is perfecting decision-making, but this is not the role AI should play in healthcare. Diagnoses, treatments and plans will still be made by medical practitioners with the patient – AI will assist and supplement this work.
“We need to get ahead of any unforeseen consequences for patient safety, quality of care and privacy across the profession. This will require future changes to how we teach, train, supervise, research and manage our workforce.
“One of the key concerns for any healthcare organisation using AI must be the privacy of patients and practitioners and their data. The AMA’s position is very clear about protecting the privacy and confidentiality of patient health information. This is where regulation and oversight is really important; the healthcare sector must establish robust and effective frameworks to manage risks, ensure patient safety and guarantee the privacy of all involved.
“The AMA’s position statement shows doctors are engaging with this rapidly evolving field and laying down some guiding principles. If we can get the settings right, so that AI serves the healthcare needs of patients and the wider community, we think it can enable healthcare that is safe, high quality and patient centred.”
Read the AMA position statement
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IF ever there was an area / domain where the technology is far ahead of the administrators this has to be it!
It is good we have a specialist committee of experts in this domain to help the AMA when they get out of their depth! See https://aihealthalliance.org/
David.
2 comments:
Does the AMA really think it can stop the ship after it has sailed by saying something as bonkers as: "Medical care delivered by human beings should never be replaced with Artificial Intelligence."
That's a delusion in the realm of 'the automobile should never replace the horse and wagon'.
Sure, AI needs regulation, but not to enable the doctors' union to ensure its members can continue to call the shots in Australia's healthcare system and enrich themselves. This is a much larger issue than the AMA has conceded here. This is about the actual potential to "vastly increase" the number of healthy years in patients’ lives: https://www.politico.com/newsletters/future-pulse/2023/08/10/the-fountain-of-youth-by-health-tech-00110594
The AMA can't stem a tide that could benefit humanity. Nor should it attempt to do so in such drastic fashion.
And if we forget about humanity for a mo, the AMA's approach would also have the Australian tech industry irreparably positioned behind the rest of the world – because companies in other countries will continue to innovate, even if it means that, yes, some medical care delivered by human beings will be replaced with AI. Which, if you met my local GP, isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Probably beat to stop over using the phrase AI, it's machine learning, just as cool. Policy etc is not the underlying issue, it's the datasets influencing the learning that is a concern - you reap what you teach - works the same for carbon and silicon lifeforms
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