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Understanding a Patient’s AI Medical Journey  

Published Posted in Artificial Intelligence

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into U.S. health care, patients should know the ways in which AI is being used in their care, concludes a new paper, “Bring a ‘Patient’s Medical AI Journey’ to the Hill.”  

Transparency is crucial for interactions between health care providers and individual patients, as well as for systemic level uses of AI, including:

  • AI devices used for patient triage
  • AI-assisted ambient notetaking in which AI apps record conversations between clinicians and patients and generate a draft of clinical notes
  • AI-based evaluation of insurance claims

The authors emphasize that transparency, education, and notification are important for building trust in the use of AI in health care. They propose the development of informational tools for policymakers and health care practitioners that can aid the process for responsible governance and delivery of care.  One such tool is what the authors call  a “Patient’s Medical AI Journey,” which would map key interactions that patients have with AI systems across health care settings and their regulatory and ethical aspects.

One of those interactions is with health insurance claims and the use of AI in evaluating them. Individual patients “have no control over how their information is used, while the ramifications for them and their families are enormous,” the authors write.

“The value of tools like the ‘Patient’s Medical AI Journey’ lies in their ability to demystify AI processes for both policymakers and the public,” they conclude. “By outlining patient interactions with AI across their healthcare journey, the tool can highlight areas where transparency is most critical and where additional safeguards may be necessary.”

Authors are Ian Stevens, a project manager and research assistant at The Hastings Center; Erin Williams, President and CEO of EDW Wisdom; Jean-Christophe Bélisle-Pipon, an assistant professor at  Simon Fraser University; and Vardit Ravitsky, President and CEO of The Hastings Center.

This research was conducted with the support of the Greenwall Foundation’s Bridging Bioethics Research & Policymaking grant as of October 1, 2024. Open Access support was provided by The Donaghue Foundation.