One of the major predicted uses of AI is for precision medicine. In one understanding, precision medicine is the use of the data from medical charts and genetic studies to predict a patient’s health risks, allowing for early intervention. AI is a necessary tool for this data analysis and risk prediction.

This presentation will provide an overview of this form of medicine and three sets of ethical issues that could arise from it. The first is the objective threat of overdiagnosis and overtreatment that arises from too great an emphasis on risk. The second is the subjective danger of patient anxiety as they become more focused on risk. Finally, AI-based tools like clinical decision support systems could undermine the clinical judgment of medical practitioners either directly, through a too heavy-handed administrative implementation, or more subtly through the phenomenon of automation bias. The session suggests ways to mitigate these dangers.

This webinar is the second in a four-part series on AI ethics featuring the Center for Theology and Ethics in Catholic Health.

Presenter

Paul Scherz, Ph.D.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Professor of Theology
University of Notre Dame

This program is non-refundable.