Ethics and Artificial Intelligence in the Doctor-Patient Relationship

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the healthcare field can offer multiple and conflicting contributions. These technologies can enable healthcare professionals to reduce the time required for routine bureaucratic tasks, which can sometimes be sterile and divergent from the interests of the patients, and allow for increased opportunities to listen to the patient and enhance the quality of the caregiving relationship. On the other hand, this automated cognitive assistance can also diminish or undermine the relational skills and abilities of healthcare personnel. For these reasons, the impact of AI on clinical care and the doctor-patient relationship calls for the need to develop shared ethical criteria to protect patient autonomy, ensuring transparency, equal opportunities, privacy, and security, all while promoting training programs for healthcare professionals not only in the technological domain but also in the ethical and social aspects. This should also include the incorporation of ethical discussions in the education of engineers, computer scientists, and developers, with specific emphasis on the ethical implications of technology design and its application to human beings. Additionally, it is important to foster an increasing awareness among the general population regarding the opportunities and risks associated with new technologies.