WHO warns against AI usage in healthcare

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare is happening without the basic legal safety nets needed to protect patients and health workers. 

In a new report, the WHO surveyed 50 countries in the European region, including the UK, to find out how AI is being adopted and regulated in healthcare practices. It found that the majority of countries lacked the systems and safeguards needed to utilise AI effectively.  

“We stand at a fork in the road,” said Dr Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, director of health systems at the WHO in Europe. “Either AI will be used to improve people’s health and well-being, reduce the burden on our exhausted health workers and bring down healthcare costs, or it could undermine patient safety, compromise privacy and entrench inequalities in care. The choice is ours.” 

The use of AI tools is increasing in the health systems of surveyed countries. Over 60 per cent of countries are already using AI-assisted diagnostics, especially in imaging and detection. An additional 50 per cent of countries have already introduced AI chatbots for patient engagement and support. 

Just last month Dr Charlotte Refsum, director of health policy at the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), told attendees at Holyrood’s Transforming Scotland’s Health conference that a new approach was needed to fully optimise AI usage in healthcare systems.

“We've got this demand that's coming in constantly and we need prevention,” said Refsum. “Then we've got constraints on capacity, workforce, funding and digital infrastructure and we need productivity. I'm not saying it's a silver bullet, but AI can help.” 

In Scotland, healthcare innovations using AI are already being developed. Earlier this year, Tess Watt, a PhD student at Heriot-Watt University, led a groundbreaking international project to create a portable AI-powered diagnostic system to detect signs of skin cancer from an image. The system works without needing internet access or input from dermatologists and is intended to cut wait times and increase access to healthcare in remote areas.

“Across Europe, AI is already diagnosing disease, predicting health risks, and connecting patients to services that once seemed out of reach,” said WHO Regional Director for Europe, Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge. “But the technology is moving faster than our ability to govern it.” 

According to the study, only four out of 50 countries have a health-specific national AI strategy with less than one in four providing AI training for health workers. In addition to this, less than 10 per cent of countries have liability standards defining legal responsibility when AI fails.  

The Scottish Government are working with the Scottish AI Alliance to explore public attitudes to the use of AI and will aim to publish an AI Policy Framework later this year to outline NHS Scotland’s approach. 

The WHO are calling for governments across Europe to approach the use of AI with a focus on developing AI strategies that align with public health goals, investing in an AI-ready workforce all while strengthening legal and ethical safeguards to protect the public.  The report also suggests that governments engage with the public transparently about the implementation of AI and work with other countries to improve cross-border data governance so that health data stored and collected by AI is secure.  

“AI will define health in this century, just as sanitation, vaccination, and universal health coverage defined the last century,” said Kluge. “The real test before us is not how fast AI advances, but how wisely humanity leads it. The measure of success will be how much it improves our health and wellbeing. As we write the story of AI and health together, let’s make sure humanity always holds the pen.”