EIT Health holds panel on AI and ethics at the World Health Summit

Survey of innovators provided ‘test’ of EC guidelines on AI and ethics

EIT Health presented learnings from a survey it produced at the request of the European Commission’s High-Level Group on AI during a panel discussion on “The Role of AI in Healthcare Innovation: Ethical Challenges of AI Innovation” at the World Health Summit in Berlin on 27 October 2019.

The panel session was led by EIT Health CEO Jan-Philipp Beck (pictured above, during the session) and Prof. Paul Timmers, EIT Health Chief Advisor. It engaged the global decision makers involved in the World Health Summit in a discussion of the EU’s AI and Ethics guidelines. EIT Health was invited to put those guidelines to the test, and one result was EIT Health’s report for the European Commission’s High-Level Group on AI, entitled “AI and Ethics in the Health Innovation Community“.

About the EIT Health report for the EC

Along with the survey of 82 members of EIT Health’s community, the report that EIT Health produced also includes case studies about how some of these innovators using AI actually deal with ethical questions.

As EIT Health’s report notes, innovation involving Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to radically improve healthcare, but it also poses ethical challenges that require regulations to protect human rights and prevent abuses. The survey of EIT Health innovators that is described in the report showed both recognition of the importance of ethical regulation as well as insufficient knowledge of the existing regulatory framework.

EIT Health’s new report builds on the “Ethics guidelines for trustworthy AI” published in draft form by the European Commission’s High-Level Group on AI in 2018. EIT Health was asked to pilot the draft by surveying its community of healthcare innovators for assessments and feedback.

EIT Health’s participation in the pilot of the High-Level Group’s draft is an essential part of EIT Health’s work as a thought leader in healthcare innovation. In his Foreword to the report, EIT Health CEO Jan-Philipp Beck explains: “I believe that EIT Health should be a leader in the responsible use of AI in health and ageing innovation.”