The pace of change of data science approaches to healthcare in recent years has dramatically increased. Data scientists and healthcare professionals increasingly use AI algorithms to support development of tools which will maximise patient benefit. AI tools rely on underlying datasets, which can amplify the impact of biases. The limitations of tools must be clear to both clinical staff using the tools and patients whose outcomes are influenced by AI tool application. Explaining all of this to a diverse audience of clinical staff, patients and carers means that the doctors of tomorrow need to be conversant with the positive and negative potential impacts of AI tools and their application to patient care.
This module will support postgraduate trainees at all career stages with the tools to evaluate the ethical and legal frameworks surrounding AI tools and their implementation.
The overall goal of this module is to enhance students’ knowledge and understanding of ethical problems raised by the use of AI in healthcare. It offers students an enhanced set of ethical skills and capacities that will facilitate their everyday practice and professionalism.
This module will provide students from various backgrounds (healthcare data science, law, social sciences and humanities ) with the opportunity to explore and understand the trajectory of AI applications for healthcare, and to provide them with a set of skills that will enable them to make ethically-sound decisions in their everyday practice, with an awareness of practical limitations in implementation.
The teaching methods will include along with lectures and seminars a variety of workshops to explore these new developments. The assessments for this module consist of two summative components: a presentation (50%) of an AI in HC ethics issue including a plan of how they would implement the NHS AI and Digital Healthcare Technologies Capability Framework. and coursework (50%): Annotated literature. Students will have to critically analyse 5-10 articles around a particular topic of AI in HC of their choice (2000 words).