The human touch is an important part of healthcare, and trust can quickly dissolve when it becomes less prominent. Understandably, many people feel that human touch is lessening due to the rise of artificial intelligence in healthcare. AI is quite useful in healthcare, but some of its applications and their implications aren’t so great.
However, it doesn’t have to be that way, and healthcare organizations can restore that trust by listening to the people. Some people are vehemently against AI, and that makes sense. However, AI is here to stay, so finding a balance between practicality, ethics, and trust is essential.
Just as industrial hygiene is important in manufacturing, the ethical use of AI should be paramount in healthcare. Hospitals, clinics, and patients alike can benefit from AI, but only if people use it ethically.
Follow along as we explore how the healthcare system can use AI without sacrificing trust.
Many of Healthcare AI’s Pitfalls Are Solvable
Countless people worry about data security, privacy, bias, and the ethical implications of AI in healthcare. Each of these concerns is valid, but that doesn’t mean AI has no use in healthcare. The healthcare industry can foster public trust and use AI ethically by taking several key steps, such as:
Offer More Transparency
Nobody can blame the public for feeling antsy about healthcare organizations using AI to handle their cases. That’s especially true when you consider that AI organizations don’t always disclose when they use AI. This alone can tarnish the good faith people have in their doctors, nurses, and trusted hospitals or clinics.
Healthcare leaders can largely solve this problem by clearly telling people when they use AI to handle their cases. Doing so can remove uncertainty and make people feel like their values and intelligence are considered. Healthcare organizations must also tell patients when and how their data is being used.
If people suspect their data will be sold or passed around, they’ll never trust their favorite hospital or clinic. However, explaining why and how they plan to use AI can at least make people feel like their intelligence is valued.
Give The People a Choice
Many people understandably don’t like to feel like AI is being imposed on them. People want to feel like they have full healthcare autonomy, and that’s not necessarily possible if hospitals impose AI. That’s especially true for people who take strong moral stances against AI due to concerns over privacy violations and environmental devastation.
Healthcare organizations can help restore trust by giving people autonomy over whether AI is used for their cases. For example, someone can provide a waiver and let people sign off on AI data collection or refuse it altogether. That may not be viable for all aspects of AI use in healthcare, but it should be an option for data collection.
AI can be useful in many aspects of healthcare, but it’s hard to recognize that when it’s forced on you. Giving people even just a little autonomy over how AI is used to handle their cases can instill trust and goodwill.
Maintain the Human Touch
Part of the public distrust of healthcare AI stems from concerns that the human touch will be lost in the shuffle. However, there are no signs that AI will ever fully replace the human touch in healthcare. That said, healthcare organizations can at least go further to demonstrate this to the public.
Human review is a big part of AI in nursing, so no healthcare providers solely rely on AI right now. Nurses must review the information before proceeding. However, healthcare providers ease distrust by giving nurses more control over how they handle AI in healthcare facilities.
For example, leaders can give nurses the chance to approve or deny AI-generated suggestions and care plans. They should also make sure the public understands that, so patients don’t worry that AI plays a bigger role in their cases than it does.
Ensure Accountability
Accountability has always been a huge part of healthcare, and that hasn’t changed. However, the world is still figuring out how to use AI ethically, and enforcing accountability is tricky. If healthcare organizations hold themselves and their employees accountable, people won’t worry about how they use AI.
Some believe the best way to do this is to create committees with the sole purpose of regulating the use of AI in healthcare. Such committees can give people peace of mind by publicly holding organizations accountable. For example, they can sanction hospitals and clinics that use AI unethically and violate patient rights.
These committees can work with healthcare leaders and organizations to create regulations with patients’ best interests in mind. From there, they can hold healthcare organizations accountable, set a great example, and comfort patients. Whether you work in a pharmacy or an emergency room, you can understand why patients could benefit from this accountability.
Eliminate Bias
Bias is a big part of the controversy surrounding AI in healthcare and even in law enforcement. There have been instances of AI programs making choices based on race, age, and gender. That alone has made many people feel wary about AI being used to handle their cases.
AI developers must work with the industries that will use their programs to introduce more nuance and eliminate bias. This may take time, but it seems that AI is developing much faster than other technologies. Of course, this has more to do with AI developers than it does with healthcare organizations.
That said, healthcare organizations should think twice before using biased AI programs. This may require hospitals to wait to embrace AI until bias is no longer a factor.
The Healthcare Industry Can Use AI Without Fostering Distrust
AI has become a controversial topic in healthcare, but it doesn’t have to be. Transparency is king, and that’s what people want more than anything. By establishing regulations and oversight committees, the healthcare industry can ensure AI is used ethically.
It’s also important to give people some autonomy over how their data is used. If people don’t want their data passed between organizations, they should have the choice to prevent it. As long as the human touch remains such a key part of healthcare, the public can trust that AI will be used ethically.
