Motion for a recommendation | Doc. 14948 | 04 July 2019

Artificial intelligence in health care: medical, legal and ethical challenges ahead

Signatories: Ms Selin SAYEK BÖKE, Turkey, SOC ; Ms Petra BAYR, Austria, SOC ; Ms Maryvonne BLONDIN, France, SOC ; Ms Mònica BONELL, Andorra, ALDE ; Mr Ahmet Ünal ÇEVİKÖZ, Turkey, SOC ; Ms Lise CHRISTOFFERSEN, Norway, SOC ; Mr Boriss CILEVIČS, Latvia, SOC ; Mr Vernon COAKER, United Kingdom, SOC ; Ms Stella CREASY, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Yunus EMRE, Turkey, SOC ; Mr Jean-Pierre GRIN, Switzerland, ALDE ; Mr Thomas HAMMARBERG, Sweden, SOC ; Ms Françoise HETTO-GAASCH, Luxembourg, EPP/CD ; Mr Claude KERN, France, ALDE ; Mr Haluk KOÇ, Turkey, SOC ; Ms Stella KYRIAKIDES, Cyprus, EPP/CD ; Baroness Doreen MASSEY, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Frédéric REISS, France, EPP/CD ; Ms Ulla SANDBÆK, Denmark, UEL ; Mr Filippo SCERRA, Italy, NR ; Mr Axel SCHÄFER, Germany, SOC ; Mr Stefan SCHENNACH, Austria, SOC ; Mr Frank SCHWABE, Germany, SOC ; Mr Manuel TORNARE, Switzerland, SOC ; Mr Martin WHITFIELD, United Kingdom, SOC

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

Artificial intelligence applications in the medical field are rapidly making progress in terms of technological development. Their use is becoming increasingly attractive for the health-care sector, such as in health monitoring, drug development, virtual health assistance and physicians’ clinical decision support. At the same time, legal and ethical frameworks in this field are only nascent, and there is a strong feeling in the scientific community on the need to keep all stakeholders better informed and hold them accountable in the field of applications of artificial intelligence.

It is necessary for national policy makers to better understand the implications of artificial intelligence use in the medical sphere so as to enable health-care systems to embrace the change and seek pragmatic improvements in their functioning while ensuring full respect for human dignity. Knowing that so far, the private sector has driven most of the research on robotic applications for health care, a more strategic approach is necessary on the part of the public health-care sector to coordinate digitalisation policies, research, investment and protection of fundamental rights in this context.

The Parliamentary Assembly should examine how the Organisation’s standard-setting role could be fully exploited or enhanced in this respect so as to guide national decisions.