About this Research Topic
Artificial intelligence (AI) has powerfully entered the world of healthcare in recent years. This is due to the extraordinary technological developments in this field, which have enabled the evolution of traditional AI systems (artificial neural networks, rule-based algorithms, expert systems, knowledge-based artificial intelligence) to advanced AI systems, namely machine learning and deep learning. In healthcare, the use of AI systems capable of operating with a high degree of autonomy represents an invaluable resource in terms of the quality of healthcare delivered, but it poses obvious ethical-deontological problems, particularly in terms of compressing physicians’ decision-making autonomy, which represents one of the inalienable rights of the healthcare professional.
The aim of this collection is to investigate the state of the art on the issue of the relationship between physician decision-making autonomy and the use of highly automated artificial intelligence systems in healthcare: what critical issues are there in ordinary medical practice? What attempts to solve the problem have been implemented? How important is the issue perceived to be by healthcare professionals and patients?
Specific areas of interest to this Research Topic include but are not limited to:
• Governance and regulatory mechanisms for the use of AI in healthcare in order to protect physician decision-making autonomy
• Bioethical implications of limiting physicians’ decision-making autonomy
• Compensatory implications of reduced decision-making autonomy of physicians
• Physicians’ and patients’ perceptions of the use of AI in healthcare and the resulting implications on physician decision-making autonomy
• Assessment of the opportunities and risks associated with the use of AI in healthcare, with a focus on the possible effects on physician decision-making autonomy
• Investigation of the possibility of integrating AI in healthcare in a way that supports rather than replaces physician decision-making
• Study of models of integration between physician and AI in other fields and evaluation of their possible applicability in healthcare
• Analysis of the legal situation of the use of AI in healthcare and the protection of physician decision-making autonomy
• Evaluation of the impact of AI on the training and professional development of physicians and the consequent evolution of physician decision-making autonomy.
The aim of this collection is to investigate the state of the art on the issue of the relationship between physician decision-making autonomy and the use of highly automated artificial intelligence systems in healthcare: what critical issues are there in ordinary medical practice? What attempts to solve the problem have been implemented? How important is the issue perceived to be by healthcare professionals and patients?
Specific areas of interest to this Research Topic include but are not limited to:
• Governance and regulatory mechanisms for the use of AI in healthcare in order to protect physician decision-making autonomy
• Bioethical implications of limiting physicians’ decision-making autonomy
• Compensatory implications of reduced decision-making autonomy of physicians
• Physicians’ and patients’ perceptions of the use of AI in healthcare and the resulting implications on physician decision-making autonomy
• Assessment of the opportunities and risks associated with the use of AI in healthcare, with a focus on the possible effects on physician decision-making autonomy
• Investigation of the possibility of integrating AI in healthcare in a way that supports rather than replaces physician decision-making
• Study of models of integration between physician and AI in other fields and evaluation of their possible applicability in healthcare
• Analysis of the legal situation of the use of AI in healthcare and the protection of physician decision-making autonomy
• Evaluation of the impact of AI on the training and professional development of physicians and the consequent evolution of physician decision-making autonomy.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Decision support models, Decision making, Automation Bioethics
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
