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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Med.
Sec. Regulatory Science
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1428504
This article is part of the Research Topic Errors and Biases in Modern Healthcare: Public Health, Medico-legal and Risk Management Aspects View all 3 articles

ROBOTICS AND AI INTO HEALTHCARE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF EUROPEAN REGULATION: WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MEDICAL MALPRACTICE?

Provisionally accepted
Francesco De Micco Francesco De Micco 1Simone Grassi Simone Grassi 2Luca Tomassini Luca Tomassini 3Gianmarco Di Palma Gianmarco Di Palma 1*Giulia Ricchezze Giulia Ricchezze 4Roberto Scendoni Roberto Scendoni 4
  • 1 Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital, Roma, Italy
  • 2 Università di Firenze, Firenze, Italy
  • 3 University of Camerino, Camerino, Marche, Italy
  • 4 University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The integration of robotics and artificial intelligence into medical practice is radically revolutionising patient care. This fusion of advanced technologies with healthcare offers a number of significant benefits, including more precise diagnoses, personalised treatments and improved health data management. However, it is critical to address very carefully the medico-legal challenges associated with this progress. The responsibilities between the different players concerned in medical liability cases are not yet clearly defined, especially when artificial intelligence is involved in the decisionmaking process. Complexity increases when technology intervenes between a person's action and the result, making it difficult for the patient to prove harm or negligence. In addition, there is the risk of an unfair distribution of blame between physicians and healthcare institutions. The analysis of European legislation highlights the critical issues related to the attribution of legal personality to autonomous robots and the recognition of strict liability for medical doctors and healthcare institutions. Although European legislation has helped to standardise the rules on this issue, some questions remain unresolved. We argue that specific laws are needed to address the issue of medical liability in cases where robotics and artificial intelligence are used in healthcare.

    Keywords: Robotics, artificial intelligence, Medical liability, Medical negligence, clinical decision making, accountability, Tort Law

    Received: 06 May 2024; Accepted: 30 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 De Micco, Grassi, Tomassini, Di Palma, Ricchezze and Scendoni. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Gianmarco Di Palma, Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital, Roma, Italy

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