One of the major predicted uses of AI is for precision medicine. In one understanding, precision medicine is the use of data from medical charts and genetic studies to predict a patient’s health risks, allowing for early intervention. AI is a necessary tool for data analysis and risk prediction.
This presentation will provide an overview of this form of medicine and three sets of ethical issues that could arise from it:
- The objective threat of overdiagnosis and overtreatment that arises from too great an emphasis on risk.
- The subjective danger of patient anxiety as they become more focused on risk.
- AI-based tools like clinical decision support systems could undermine the clinical judgment of medical practitioners either directly, through a too heavy-handed administrative implementation or more subtly through the phenomenon of automation bias.
The session will suggest ways to mitigate these dangers.
This webinar is the second in a four-part series on AI ethics featuring the Center for Theology and Ethics in Catholic Health.
