Abstract:  Presentation of research examining patient perspectives on artificial intelligence (AI) in health care. (How) can and should patients be informed about - and involved in - the implementation of AI-supported technologies in health care? In their presentation, they review critical literature on ‘AI engagement’ (specifically in the field of healthcare) and they situate their own early (teaching-related) experiments with AI & participation. Their presentation is intended to spark discussion regarding current calls from governments, funding agencies, healthcare bodies and patient organisations for engagement and collaboration with patients in times of increased attention to AI as well as a broader rhetoric of patient empowerment and health data literacy.

They will begin by situating our research on patient perspectives as part of a four-year (project entitled “Responsible Artificial Intelligence in Clinical Decision Making” (RAIDIO). The aim of the RAIDIO project is to investigate processes of digitalization and the desired role for AI in image-based medicine. The use of AI is changing medical practice. While the technical possibilities of digitalisation and AI in medicine have been in the fore of academic debate, ethical orientation towards the responsible development and use of AI in medical decision making urgently needs to be strengthened. The RAIDIO research team focuses specifically on new AI applications in the field of imaging diagnostics (pathology and radiology) and uses research methods from the fields of ethics, medical sociology, narrative medicine, and history. With this multi- and interdisciplinary approach, the researchers study changing notions of trust, responsibility, expertise, and patient perspectives in the development of guidelines for responsible AI in medical decision making.

 The project is a collaboration between the University Medical Centre Utrecht (UMCU), Maastricht University (UM) and Radboud UMC. Researchers involved are Annelien Bredenoord (formerly at UMCU, now rector of Erasmus University Rotterdam), Jojanneke Drogt (UMCU), Karin Jongsma (UMCU), Flora Lysen (UM), Megan Milota (UMCU), Shoko Vos (RadboudUMC) and Sally Wyatt (UM). RAIDIO is funded by the Dutch Research Council, NWO, for the period June 2020-June 2024.

 Speaker bio:

Flora Lysen is assistant professor at Maastricht University and researcher in the Science, Technology and Society Studies (MUSTS) research group. Her research focuses on historical and current conceptions of automation, computation and visualization in the medical sciences, behavioural sciences, and brain and mind sciences.

Sally Wyatt is professor of Digital Cultures and Associate Dean for Research at the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, Maastricht University. Her interest in what we used to call ‘information and communication technologies’ began in the mid-1980s when she was working at the ESRC to establish PICT, of which the University of Edinburgh was a major beneficiary.