Ethics Principles for Artificial Intelligence-Based Telemedicine for Public Health

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of telemedicine has grown exponentially over the past decade, along with the adoption of AI-based telemedicine to support public health systems. Although AI-based telemedicine can open up novel opportunities for the delivery of clinical health and care and become a strong aid to public health systems worldwide, it also comes with ethical risks that should be detected, prevented, or mitigated for the responsible use of AI-based telemedicine in and for public health. However, despite the current proliferation of AI ethics frameworks, thus far, none have been developed for the design of AI-based telemedicine, especially for the adoption of AI-based telemedicine in and for public health. We aimed to fill this gap by mapping the most relevant AI ethics principles for AI-based telemedicine for public health and by showing the need to revise them via major ethical themes emerging from bioethics, medical ethics, and public health ethics toward the definition of a unified set of 6 AI ethics principles for the implementation of AI-based telemedicine.

Automated summary

The use of AI in telemedicine has grown significantly in the past decade. While AI-based telemedicine has the potential to greatly benefit public health, there are also ethical risks that need to be addressed. Currently, there is a lack of AI ethics frameworks specifically designed for telemedicine in public health. This study aims to fill this gap by identifying relevant ethical principles and proposing a unified set of AI ethics principles for the implementation of AI-based telemedicine.