Artificial intelligence (AI) can save lives – but “we need to have good regulations,” according to Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite, CEO of HealthAI, the agency responsible for artificial intelligence in healthcare.
To address the urgent need for strict regulation of AI in the healthcare sector, HealthAI has launched a global community of practice (CoP), the organization announced last week. This initiative aims to strengthen each country’s capacity to create well-informed regulations that promote the ethical and equitable use of AI in healthcare.
“Our global community of practice provides a critical platform to address the urgent need for regulation, bringing together global leaders from across sectors to ensure that the impact of AI on health is positive, responsible and inclusive,” said Leite.
The CoP will be a platform to discuss AI in healthcare and share experiences on the responsible use of AI in this area. It will bring together organizations, policymakers, technology experts and health AI leaders, fostering potential collaborations.
“With equity at the heart of our mission, we wanted to ensure that a bottom-up approach was taken to ensure that the voices of all stakeholders around the world would be heard in the development of these regulatory standards on AI and the implementation of these standards. standards,” Leite told Health Policy Watch.
He said the CoP would be open to all institutions – public, private, academic, patient and community organizations, civil society movements and technologists – in application.
“We want to give a voice to those who are not heard in international processes and be an important think tank as we move forward and contribute to building this global ecosystem,” Leite added.
HealthAI has a three-year strategic implementation plan that focuses on identifying at least 10 pioneer countries that it can help support and provide technical assistance. Leite said one of the challenges in many countries is the “absolute absence” of any form of expertise at the regulatory level. “To seriously address this issue in the future, countries will need to invest in developing this capacity. »
Leite noted that while organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), UNESCO and OECD are responsible for setting global standards, countries must implement and enforce these standards in situations practice.
Regulatory Confidence in Technology
There is debate over whether regulations could hinder technology adoption in healthcare. However, Leite said HealthAI’s analysis is that many companies are hesitant to use the technology because of concerns about legal liability if something goes wrong. His team believes that establishing a regulatory framework will give businesses the confidence to implement technological solutions.
HealthAI, notably through its CoP, aims to create a global online repository of validated AI solutions. This platform will be open source and will present approved technologies, their functions and their compliance with AI ethical standards.
“This is particularly important for startups in low- and middle-income countries,” Leite said. “Let’s say their national regulator just approved their technology. Now, suddenly, you can see their technology showcased on this platform so that their innovations can be used in the Global North, meaning that tools developed in low-resource settings could be a source of inspiration in high-income countries and not always in other countries. go around.
At the same time, Leite said, another goal of the global network would be to establish an early warning system. This system would detect unintended negative impacts of AI technologies around the world, raising a wake-up call for all agencies to take immediate action.
“This is important to ensure that governments can act in a timely manner and avoid harming citizens,” Leite said.
WHO announces SARAH
HealthAI’s CoP announcement followed SARAH announcement by WHOa digital health promoter prototype with enhanced empathic response powered by generative AI.
SARAH stands for “Smart AI Resource Assistant for Health”.
“For too long, health has been seen as a passive beneficiary of innovation rather than a driver of it. » wrote Hans Henri P. KlugeWHO regional director for Europe, in an article for Monitoring health policies. “It’s time to change this mentality and harness the power of innovation.”
SARAH is an advanced AI resource assistant designed for healthcare. WHO said the tool integrates the latest language models and cutting-edge technology to engage users around the clock in eight languages, covering a wide range of health topics across various devices. It will provide information on a number of health-related topics, including healthy habits and mental health, cancer, heart and lung disease, and diabetes.
“SARAH gives us a glimpse of how artificial intelligence could be used in the future to improve access to health information in a more interactive way,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Image credits: Quick Creator, Pixels.
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