Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are rapidly entering our health care system. But the emergence of AI brings with it numerous risks and uncertainties. Dr. Colleen Flood has received a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for a project that will explore AI-related concerns entitled “Machine M.D.: How Should We Regulate AI in Health Care?”. She is joined by three co-lead investigators, including Common Law’s Dr. Teresa Scassa, as well as Dr. Anna Goldenberg of the SickKids Research Institute, and Professor Catherine Régis of the Université de Montréal.
As the late Ian Kerr and colleagues note, “we stand on the precipice of a society that increasingly interacts with machines, many of which will be more akin to agents than mere mechanical devices. If so, our laws need to reflect this stunning new reality.”
In the context of health care, AI algorithms may incorporate biases that adversely impact specific communities, for example, women, Indigenous Peoples or Black Canadians. There are also concerns that patient privacy will be jeopardized as AI tools process huge quantities of health information. It may also be a challenge for health care providers to obtain meaningful consent for the use of novel and complex technologies that they may not fully understand. Finally, it is not clear who can be held to account, and for what, when injury arises from the use of inscrutable AI health tools.
Presently, we don’t know whether Canadian laws and regulations (including ethical codes of practice that all health care professionals must follow) will adequately protect patients and other users against the concerns that have been raised with respect to the introduction of AI into health care. Dr. Flood’s research will, for the first time, analyze whether laws existing across Canada at the federal and provincial levels are sufficient. The project’s large, multidisciplinary team will work with leading international experts from the US, UK, France and China to examine the laws of other countries to provide evidence on how to best reform laws in Canada. The goal is to allow Canadian patients to truly benefit from the revolutionary potential of AI by building the strongest evidence base possible for lawmakers to develop a truly effective legal regime for AI in health care.
Co-investigators on the grant include Professor Jennifer Chandler and Professor Vanessa Gruben of the Common Law Section, and Professor Céline Castets-Renard of the Civil Law Section, among many others. Essential support is being provided by the Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics and Centre for Law, Technology and Society.
This is the second major grant from CIHR that Dr. Flood has received in the past year. Last fall, she and Dr. Kumanan Wilson, MD, of the Bruyère Research Institute – who is also a co-applicant on this new grant – received funding from CIHR and Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) to study “Immunity Passports for COVID-19" as part of an initiative focused on improving our understanding of COVID-19 immunity in Canada.
Immunity passports would provide digital proof that someone is immune to COVID-19 (through vaccination or possibly natural immunity), allowing these immune people to work and participate in the economy more freely. The purpose of the CIHR grant is to evaluate the ethical, legal and public health implications around immunity passports and provide guidance on potential design and evaluation strategies for Canada.
Recently, Dr. Flood and Dr. Wilson authored a commentary piece for the Canadian Medical Association Journal on implementing digital passports for COVID-19 immunization.
Earlier this year, Dr. Flood and Dr. Wilson received wide-ranging coverage for an article they authored for the Canadian Medical Association Journal arguing the case for mandatory vaccination of health care workers. Click here to read an article about the issue in Canadian Lawyer.