Ethical Governance Of Artificial Intelligence In Healthcare: Balancing Innovation With Ensuring Ethical Integrity And Gender Equity

Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds the promise of transforming various sectors, notably healthcare. Al’s capabilities extend to improving diagnostic precision, tailoring treatment plans, and optimizing administrative processes. However, this potential comes with significant ethical challenges, particularly patient autonomy, data privacy, bias, and the risk of amplifying existing inequalities. This policy brief explores the prospects and ethical challenges Al introduces in healthcare. It underscores the necessity for developing robust ethical governance frameworks for deploying Al in collaboration with diverse stakeholders. These should result in pragmatic tools for ethical adherence assessment, stakeholder engagement, and considering the broader implications for public health. This policy brief then applies these findings to a critical area where ethical governance is needed: gender-related issues. Al can empower women and foster gender equality, but without careful oversight, it might perpetuate gender stereotypes and disparities. To tackle this, the policy briefproposes an ethical governance framework drawing inspiration from established frameworks and/or models: (i) UNESCO’s Recommendation on the ethics of artificial intelligence, (ii)) WHO’s guidance on Ethics & Governance of Artificial Intelligence for Health. This framework enshrines principles such as respect for human autonomy, harm prevention, fairness, and transparency.