Artificial intelligence (AI) is making its way into the medical field, including how doctors diagnose patients, how medical offices operate, and how treatment plans are developed. While some industries have fared well with implementing this inorganic intelligence into their business models, AI in healthcare raises major ethical concerns when it comes to AI medical documentation.
Medical documentation, covering patient history, instructions, demographics, informed consent, lab results, and clinical notes, is increasingly being managed by AI. This trend raises significant concerns regarding the reliability and ethical implications of AI in handling sensitive medical information.
In the management of such important and potentially life-altering data, it’s imperative to prioritize human intelligence over artificial intelligence to ensure patient well-being and ethical healthcare practices.
The Role of AI in the Medical Field
There is no safe and secure role for AI in the medical field. Diagnoses, treatment plans, exams, and building relationships with patients require trained medical professionals who have dedicated years of their lives to studying and practicing medicine.
There are growing concerns that the new technology is not up to par with the high standards we hold in our medical services and treatments, especially concerning medical documentation.
Challenges of AI in Medical Documentation
Patients putting their trust in AI software to analyze, generate, and understand their medical documentation makes many uneasy about the new technology. Not only is this new advanced tech not 100% perfect or flawless, but government regulations have not caught up to AI either.
Trust
One of the major concerns patients and providers have with AI in medical documentation is trust.
There are two sides to the concern of trust.
The first is the patient. They trust their doctor to read through their lab results, take notes, and review their history to truly understand the patient’s health. If patients discover AI interfering and taking control of their medical documentation, they could lose trust in their medical provider.
The second side is from the medical provider and staff. AI is still so new that there are still some major flaws in its answers. With chances of AI hallucination and miscalculation, trusting AI software with medical documentation is a potentially life-threatening mistake in the medical field.
Privacy
Privacy laws, such as HIPAA, protect patients. These laws give individuals, medical professionals, and employers rights regarding what medical information can be shared and with whom.
At this stage, HIPAA and other regulations have not caught up to the age of AI. Therefore, there are no privacy laws surrounding AI in medical documentation. This can be unsettling for many patients and put them at risk for data leaks and hacks.
Accuracy
AI results are not anywhere near perfect. It can tend to generate misinformation or incorrect data.
When it comes to generating medical documentation such as patient instructions, clinical records, patient history, or analyzing lab results, it’s imperative to have a pair of human eyes (or two) to look over this important information.
Leaving AI at the hands of making a diagnosis or transcribing medical dictations from a doctor can cause enormous errors pertaining to a patient’s treatment and condition.
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