Informed Consent for AI and Health Care

This book clarifies the differing roles of informed consent in healthcare as well as the guidelines, rules, and laws governing consent. The growing use of AI in health care has led to open questions about disclosure to the public as well as to healthcare consumers. There is no universal right to know whether or how AI is used in health care. The traditional right to informed consent requires disclosure of information, often based on what a reasonable person would use to make healthcare decisions, such as the risk of debilitating side effects. The system of informed consent as disclosure, understanding, and acquiescence as commonly used in patient care differs from the informed consent to release one’s data, which is governed by a web of privacy laws. Furthermore, disclosure of the role of AI in drug discovery or in medical records brings different concerns for which the traditional patient-centered informed consent is insufficient or inapplicable. It may be ethically satisfactory to disclose the use of AI for the sake of transparency when the use of AI is unlikely to be considered in the healthcare consumer’s decision making. By providing a simple explainer of medical AI, a brief history of informed consent, and arguments for the use of informed consent and against it, this book recommends using informed consent in health care, especially when a clinician is likely to unduly rely on an AI tool that poses risk. This book explores what healthcare consumers and the public should know and why. It is of interest to scholars and professionals navigating the growing use of AI in healthcare.