The growing use of artificial intelligence in healthcare necessitates stronger legal and ethical safeguards to protect patients and healthcare workers, the World Health Organisation’s Europe branch said in a report published Wednesday. That is the conclusion of a report on AI adoption and regulation in healthcare systems in Europe, based on responses from 50 of the 53 member states in the WHO’s European region, which includes Central Asia.
Only four countries, or 8%, have adopted a dedicated national AI health strategy, and seven others are in the process of doing so, the report said. “We stand at a fork in the road,” Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, the WHO Europe’s director of health systems, said in a statement. “Either AI will be used to improve people’s health and well-being, reduce the burden on our exhausted health workers and bring down healthcare costs, or it could undermine patient safety, compromise privacy and entrench inequalities in care,” she said.