By Trisha Nagin Artificial Intelligence (AI) scribing technology has been praised as a revolutionary tool in modern healthcare. It can be seen as an answer to the long-standing problem of physician burnout caused by documentation. By listening in on doctor-patient conversations and generating clinical notes automatically, the technology is designed to save time, increase efficiency, […]
Category: Medical ethics
The doctor will speak as you prefer? How AI could personalize medical communication
By Hazem Zohny, Jemima Winfried Allen, Dominic Wilkinson, and Julian Savulescu. When you go to the doctor, there’s little telling what kind of communicator you’ll get. Some doctors are on the paternalistic side, telling you what you should do without much discussion. Others just give you the facts and leave the decision entirely to you. […]
My digital twin is queer
By Jose Luis Guerrero Quiñones and Anna Puzio. What if we could avoid (at least to some extent) doctors’ appointments? No more waiting times, no more moving around hospital floors. Who wouldn’t be happy to send someone else in their place for certain medical examinations? In the future, instead of undergoing a thorough physical examination, […]
Should virtual assistants be used to help people in vulnerable positions access care?
By Steven R. Kraaijeveld, Hanneke van Heijster, Nadine Bol, and Kris E. Bevelander. The rising costs of health care in Europe and many countries around the world have led to calls to use technology and digitalization to “drive more equitable and sustainable outcome for all”. Digitalizing parts of health care may not only reduce costs, […]
Should liberal states permit the social use of mitochondrial replacement technique? The answer is yes.
By Marco Tang. What is mitochondrial replacement technique (MRT)? It involves obtaining a donor egg, removing the nDNA from the donor egg, transferring the legal mother’s nDNA into the donor egg and fertilizing it with the legal father’s sperm. This procedure enables women with mitochondrial disease to have children without it. What is unique is […]
The GMC must re-evaluate its treatment of climate protesters
By Rammina Yassaie. On 7 January this year, Bristol GP Patrick Hart, was jailed for 12 months for damaging petrol pump screens, which he describes as “an act of care” in protest against continued fossil fuel extraction; the environmental consequences of which are considered to be the greatest health threat of the 21st century. Hart’s […]
Who deserves a pig heart?
By Johannes Kögel and Georg Marckmann. Ethical criteria are essential for determining which patients should receive a pig heart transplant. These criteria—medical need, capacity to benefit, and patient choice—are designed to ensure a pathway to clinical trials that balances short-term outcomes with the long-term success of the therapy. Xenotransplantation, the transplantation of organs across species […]
How treatment framing can mislead
By Shang Long Yeo Suppose a doctor believes that some treatment best serves a patient’s interests, and knows that framing treatment outcomes in terms of survival rates (‘out of 100 who took the treatment, 90 survive’) rather than death rates (’10 die’) will make it more likely for the patient to consent. Is the doctor […]
Could XAI harm patients in time-sensitive environments?
By Andreas Wabro. Achieving transparency and interpretability of algorithmic predictions remains an important research goal for many AI experts around the world. In particular, the epistemic benefits of explainable AI (XAI) methods have been widely discussed, and especially in the context of healthcare, international institutions and academic experts often call for measures to improve physicians’ […]
Medical research with human samples and health data—why ‘dynamic’ consent is not the solution
By Andreas Bruns and Eva C Winkler. Informed consent is a central principle of medical research ethics. Traditionally, consent is required to respect the autonomy of human research subjects—their right to make their own, informed decision about whether or not to participate in medical research. However, this principle has come under significant pressure with the […]