During International Women’s Day various guests and healthcare professionals discussed the moral issues surrounding AI and its ability to solve health-related challenges in a more ethical and inclusive manner.
This, as AI is being challenged by society to be more ethically inclined.
Jo Pohl, associate director at global management consultancy Kearney said the future of medicine could only improve with the right kind of AI solutions, adding that investing in women’s health was not only a moral imperative, but an endeavour that made economic sense.
“Shaping the private and public health agenda through increased advocacy and awareness, with governments and medical professionals putting women’s health on—and higher up—the agenda and targeting sources of stigma and bias – this is what we need to do right now,” she said.
Kearney used the event to explore a patient identified only as Tina B’s resilience, the challenges she faced, the odds she beat, and just how different her journey could have been with the advent of AI in donor healthcare decision-making.
She shared her opinion on the use of AI in selecting organ donors and told guests at the event that she believed if AI had to decide whether she should receive her surgery or not, it would have decided against it, based on inherent biases or rather what the AI was asked to solve.
Tina B is an advocate for organ donation and aims to help others going through the waiting process. She told guests of her experience of having to wait three years for an organ donor.
Tina said she feared that the current AI approaches would have assessed the state of her lungs and heart and potentially rejected her as a candidate for organ donation. This was because she needed three organs, adding that AI would have viewed her as one, high risk candidate versus the potential to save three “better” candidates.
Tina called for the human element – from intuition to hope and optimism – which she said was key to a human approach to healthcare.
“I am not an expert in AI, but I am an expert in being a patient,” she said. “AI could help inform options but needs to be questioned, and experienced doctors need to be able to apply their human intuition in any results,” Tina B said.
Theo Sibiya, Kearney’s Africa MD, is of the view that AI healthcare must be inclusive and benefit all people regardless of race and social standing.
“AI in healthcare should be used to benefit all members of society, regardless of gender, race, or socio-economic status,” Sibiya said.
“How can we co-create a world where everyone is seen, heard and the human considered in healthcare decision-making.There needs to be a deliberate focus on keeping women front of mind and lending our expertise to continue breaking down barriers such as the gender health gap by redesigning healthcare that can put women first,” Sibiya said.
Saturday Star