Lack of AI policies worry nurses
NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES — Nurses are worried that the lack of laws on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in hospitals could negatively affect patient care.
Judy Schmidt, a nurse at the Community Medical Center in Toms River, New Jersey, raised ethical concerns about surgery, where robotics and other technologies are being used.
“In the long run, whatever artificial intelligence we use, it’s still the human — the person — that has to take that data, and the interpretation of that data in some respects, and apply it to the real person that’s in the bed, the nursing home or the home of that person,” Schmidt said, per Stateline.
According to Richard Ridge, an assistant professor of nursing at the University of Virginia, lawmakers are lagging behind in creating policies on the use of AI in hospitals.
As such, healthcare workers are resorting to drafting their own laws. Ridge noted that in the creation of AI laws, lawmakers should include the valuable input of these healthcare workers, or it would mean nothing at all.
“I wouldn’t want to read something [policy] about AI in health care and it not have anything to say about nurses,” added Ridge, who also heads a panel on workforce issues for the professional group the Virginia Nurses Association.
Other states have been taking initiatives to legislate AI usage in hospitals. In Georgia, a law allows the use of AI in eye exams. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, a bill would require insurers to disclose whether they are using AI-based data when reviewing claims to determine whether medical procedures are necessary.
The European Union earlier reached a landmark agreement establishing the world’s first set of AI laws that govern its usage across the bloc’s 27 member states.
The first draft was revealed in 2021. It includes a ban on “remote biometric identification systems in publicly accessible spaces for the purpose of law enforcement,” including facial recognition. The law is expected to be legislated by 2025 at the earliest.
