The Council of Europe’s Steering Committee for Human Rights in the fields of Biomedicine and Health (CDBIO) has issued a new report on the impact of artificial intelligence on the doctor-patient relationship.

The report examines AI systems regarding the doctor-patient relationship in relation to the human rights principles referred to in the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (“Oviedo Convention”). More specifically, the report investigates the potential human rights impact of AI according to six themes: (1) Inequality in access to high quality healthcare; (2) Transparency to health professionals and patients; (3) Risk of social bias in AI systems; (4) Dilution of the patient’s account of well-being; (5) Risk of automation bias, de-skilling, and displaced liability; and (6) Impact on the right to privacy.

The report was prepared in the framework of the Strategic Action Plan on Human Rights and Technologies in Biomedicine (2020-2025), regarding the governance of technologies and the objective of “Embedding human rights in the development of technologies which have an application in the field of biomedicine”.

The report, prepared by Brent Mittelstadt, Senior Research Fellow and Director of Research at the Oxford Internet Institute (University of Oxford), contributes to the future work of the Council of Europe work on AI in healthcare. More information on the Council of Europe’s work in: Human rights and biomedicine and Artificial intelligence and Human Rights