The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) have published the first ethical guidelines for AI in healthcare. The guideline aims to lay down a framework that ensures healthcare solutions based on artificial intelligence are beneficial to all involved stakeholders, while also upholding patient privacy, confidentiality and data handling.
Dr Rajiv Behl, Director General at ICMR, highlighted the need for an ethical framework to ensure the development of AI-based tools in the domain of healthcare. He stated that AI technology, being data-driven, brings along various ethical implications—for instance, algorithmic transparency, explainability and liability; bias and discrimination; and oversight and accountability. The guideline, he said, will provide the much needed ethical principles for developing AI-based tools that can benefit everyone involved.
The guideline has been designed to be inclusive for all the stakeholders who will be affected by the development of these tools—innovators, developers, patients, technologists, researchers, healthcare professionals, ethics committees, sponsors and funding agencies. It contains sections that cover ethical principles for AI in health, guiding principles for stakeholders, the ethics review process, governance of AI in healthcare and research, and the informed consent process that involves human participants and their data.
To produce these guidelines, NTAGI and ICMR consulted subject matter experts, researchers and ethicists, who advised on the various ethical implications and outcomes. Through the document, they have aimed to provide an ethical framework that ensures suitable AI based solutions in biomedical research and healthcare.
The guidelines will ensure a safe and efficient development, deployment and acceptance of AI-based tools in biomedical research and healthcare. Its main objective is to maintain ethical standards while not hindering innovation; while it provides guidance on the use of AI in healthcare, it does not endorse any specific disease-specific diagnostic or therapeutic approach. With this balanced approach, it will ensure that the entire AI sector in India progresses in a mindful and responsible manner.
