Image: A painting of a futuristic nurse in rural New Zealand created using Stable Diffusion on huggingface.co
This recent report on AI and healthcare is from the Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor.
FOREWORD:
This report was requested by Prime Minister Hipkins in 2023 and was produced at pace for delivery of draft recommendations ahead of the 2023 election (terms of reference can be found in the full report). With a focus on healthcare delivery, this report was produced with Ian Town, the Chief Science Advisor to Manatū Hauora | Ministry of Health and co-chair of our expert panel.
Employing AI technologies in healthcare has far-reaching impacts. There are ways in which these technologies could enhance the healthcare system very soon, for example improving back-office operations or diagnostic support. The case studies featured in the full report offer a glimpse of current and near-future capabilities to start a conversation about how to introduce AI to our healthcare system.
Deploying the right AI technology has the potential to address some long-standing inequities in healthcare that will have positive impacts felt more widely than the healthcare system itself. Coupled with these opportunities are a series of complex ethical and legal issues. We understand that key health agencies are already planning work programmes which will go beyond the issues touched on in this report to ensure that AI is deployed effectively and safely in the health system. It is our hope that this report might support robust discussion amongst policy writers and decision makers to consider the best path to enable technology to support human care.
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The expert panel, including Vithya and Michael, has helped shaped this report with their expertise and guidance.
Research Fellow, The University of Auckland
Professor Michael WItbrock, The University of Auckland
More information: https://www.pmcsa.ac.nz/artificial-intelligence-2/ai-in-healthcare/