There have been calls for the Government to form a regulator to oversee the use of AI in the healthcare system.

An independent commissioner and a national five-year strategy to oversee the use of AI in healthcare have been recommended by a group tasked with investigating the impact of technology on the health sector.

The group, known as ‘The Citizen’s Jury on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Healthcare’ was set up by the Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science and Industry (IPPOSI).

AI is already used to assist with medical diagnoses, including in radiology departments.

Artificial intelligence in smart healthcare hospital technology concept. Image: JIRAROJ PRADITCHAROENKUL / Alamy. 1 September 2018

Chief clinical information officer with the HSE Richard Greene explained to The Anton Savage Show how AI is used in X-ray technology.

“One of the tools that’s being used for instance, just to make it real for people is, you know, say you go into an accident and emergency in some sites, and you have hurt your ankle,” he said.

“There’s an X-ray taken of your bones to see if you have a fracture, and there are tools there that can actually assist the non-specialist doctor.

“So, the doctor who’s not a radiologist, [AI] can actually assist them to enhance their chance of detecting that there is actually a fracture in the X-ray and therefore appropriate treatment is started immediately.”

Mr Greene said these images would still be reviewed by a radiologist, but the use of AI here helps to ensure that a patient isn’t left all weekend or overnight without proper treatment.

'Very significant' human input

He said human input involved is still “very significant”.

“[AI] can assist the doctor or other clinician like nurse or physiotherapist or whoever with a diagnosis and to maybe even provide them with advice about a patient,” he said.

“As we get into predictive analytics in the future it might be able to help take all the information around that patient from an electronic health record and genetics and everything and say, ‘Well you should probably be going for that treatment rather than the other one’.

“But ultimately, the doctor and the patient working together will still make the final decision.”

A man talks with a doctor in his office. Image: Bill Cheyrou / Alamy Stock Photo

Professor of computing at DCU Alan Smeaton told the show that AI is already “starting to creep into” healthcare systems.

“I use the word creep in a kind of a positive sense because it’s used in prevention by predicting risk modelling and screening systems that we would go through,” he said.

“It’s used in detection, as Richard gave an example there for CT scans or X-rays, it’s used in treatment and diagnostics and it’s used in rehabilitation.

“While our healthcare systems are extremely well regulated, AI is not.

“And when you bring in something like this, which has such a transformative effect, then it’s reasonable – it's almost expected - that we would examine how it can and should be regulated.”

Mr Smeaton said the Citizen’s Jury had made a range of recommendations, with human oversight central to all of them.

Main image: Virtual ai, body hologram and doctor working on healthcare research with digital design on tablet in a hospital at work. Image: Yuri Arcurs / Alamy. 12 February 2022