Thiruvananthapuram, July 13 (Representative) Artificial Intelligence (Al) is not a healthcare panacea as it is neither a replacement for healthcare providers, according to Dr Naresh Purohit, Visiting Professor at the Thrissur based Kerala University of Health Sciences, here on Thursday. “If AI is meant to be a cure-all, then advancing technology becomes a new and more complex challenge,” Dr Purohit, who is also Executive Member of the Federation of Hospital Administrators, said after delivering a key note address at a seminar organised by the Palakkad based Indian Institute of Technology on “Better Medicine Through Machine Learning”. “AI could have an impact on the health of millions through social determinants of health and also through manipulation and control of others. When combined with the rapidly improving ability to distort or misrepresent reality with deep fakes, AI-driven information systems may further undermine democracy by causing a general breakdown in trust or by driving social division and conflict, with ensuing public health impacts,” he said. “AI is a powerful and promising technology that can transform the healthcare sector in many ways. However, it also poses some challenges and risks that need to be carefully considered and addressed.”
“Therefore, it is important to adopt a balanced and responsible approach to the development and deployment of AI in healthcare, taking into account both its advantages and disadvantages,” he averred. “It is essential to involve all relevant stakeholders, such as patients, providers, researchers, policymakers, regulators, developers, and users, in the design, implementation, and evaluation of AI in healthcare. By doing so researchers can ensure that AI serves the best interests of humanity and society.” he averred. He pointed out that the most obvious risk that the AI systems have is that they can sometimes be wrong, and that patient injury or other health-care problems may result. He said that the growing influence of AI is not just restricted to diagnosis but has also found space in spheres such as disease surveillance, in-vitro fertilisation, and drug delivery, among others. “AI can revolutionise healthcare delivery in India by enhancing efficiency, accuracy, and accessibility to ultimately improve patient outcomes,” he revealed. By leveraging the capabilities of AI, Dr Purohit said, India can improve healthcare accessibility, enhance diagnostic accuracy, optimise treatment outcomes, and drive overall efficiency in healthcare delivery.
He pointed out that AI was enhancing the effectiveness of national healthcare delivery by enabling hospitals and doctors to treat more patients without compromising on treatment quality. Experts opined that the development of artificial intelligence can have negative health impacts. They explained that the risks linked to medicine and healthcare “include the potential for AI errors to cause patient harm, issues with data privacy and security, and the use of AI in ways that will worsen social and health inequalities.” “The widespread deployment of AI technology will result in a loss of jobs and the threats that come with it,” they warned. “Furthermore, we do not know how society will respond psychologically and emotionally to a world where work is unavailable or unnecessary, nor are we thinking much about the policies and strategies that would be needed to break the association between unemployment and ill health,” they added. “They concurred that effective regulation of the development and use of artificial intelligence is needed to avoid harm. Medics have to use their judgement and experience to interpret the data at the moment. Nothing is 100% yet,” he added.