AI could make it harder to establish blame for medical failings, experts say
The use of artificial intelligence in healthcare could create a legally complex blame game when it comes to establishing liability for medical failings, experts have warned.The development of AI for clinical use has boomed, with researchers creating a host of tools, from algorithms to help interpret scans to systems that can aid with diagnoses.AI is also being developed to help manage hospitals, from optimising bed capacity to tackling supply chains.But while experts say the technology could bring myriad benefits for healthcare, they say there is also cause for concern, from a lack of testing of the effectiveness of AI tools to questions over who is responsible should a patient have a negative outcome.Prof Derek Angus, of the University of Pittsburgh, said: “There’s definitely going to be instances where there’s the perception that something went wrong and people will look around to blame someone.
”The Jama summit on Artificial Intelligence, hosted last year by the Journal of the American Medical Association, brought together a panoply of experts including clinicians, technology companies, regulatory bodies, insurers, ethicists, lawyers and economists.The resulting report, of which Angus is first author, not only looks at the nature of AI tools and the areas of healthcare where they are being used, but also examines the challenges they present, including legal concerns.Prof Glenn Cohen from Harvard law school, a co-author of the report, said patients could face difficulties showing fault in the use or design of an artificial intelligence product.There could be barriers to gaining information about its inner workings, while it could also be challenging to propose a reasonable alternative design for the product or prove a poor outcome was caused by the AI system.He said: “The interplay between the parties may also present challenges for bringing a lawsuit – they may point to one another as the party at fault, and they may have existing agreement contractually reallocating liability or have indemnification lawsuits.
”Prof Michelle Mello, another author of the report, from Stanford law school, said courts were well equipped to resolve legal issues.“The problem is that it takes time and will involve inconsistencies in the early days, and this uncertainty elevates costs for everyone in the AI innovation and adoption ecosystem,” she said.The report also raises concerns about how AI tools are evaluated, noting many are outside the oversight of regulators such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).Angus said: “For clinicians, effectiveness usually means improved health outcomes, but there’s no guarantee that the regulatory authority will require proof [of that].Then once it’s out, AI tools can be deployed in so many unpredictable ways in different clinical settings, with different kinds of patients, by users who are of different levels of skills.
There is very little guarantee that what seems to be a good idea in the pre-approval package is actually what you get in practice,”The report outlines that at present there are many barriers to evaluating AI tools including that they often need to be in clinical use to be fully assessed, while current approaches to assessment are expensive and cumbersome,Angus said it was important that funding was made available for the performance of AI tools in healthcare to be properly assessed, with investment in digital infrastructure a key area,“One of the things that came up during the summit was [that] the tools that are best evaluated have been least adopted,The tools that are most adopted have been least evaluated.
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Revealed: Labour-run council using legal loophole to serve families with no-fault evictions
A Labour-run council is using a legal loophole to issue dozens of families with no-fault evictions, despite Keir Starmer’s manifesto pledge to outlaw the practice.Scrapping no-fault evictions “immediately” was one of Labour’s main manifesto pledges before its 2024 election win, but more than a year on, the party’s flagship renters’ rights bill has not been made law.Local authorities cannot normally carry out no-fault evictions – known officially as section 21 evictions – as they apply to tenancies issued by private landlords.However, Lambeth council in south London has been able to start eviction proceedings against 63 households because it created an arm’s-length body to manage some of its housing stock.Five families have already been issued with possession orders via the courts and two of those have had their homes repossessed by bailiffs
Gen Z women in the US: do you identify as liberal?
Gen Z women are the most politically left-leaning group in the US, according to a poll which suggests that women 28 and younger skew substantially more left than the national average on issues such as abortion and gender-affirming care.The 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll found that 17% of gen Z women identify as Republicans, compared with 30% of gen Z men.We would like to hear from younger women in the US about their thoughts on this survey – and whether they identify as “liberal” or not.You can share your thoughts on the poll using this form.Please include as much detail as possible
High street slot machine shops pay staff bonuses linked to how much gamblers lose
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Millions of over-50s have undiagnosed sight and hearing problems, UK study suggests
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Female athletes have faster reaction times on day they ovulate, study finds
Female athletes have reaction times 80 milliseconds faster and make fewer mistakes on the day they ovulate, according to research.Researchers at University College London (UCL) studied how different stages of the menstrual cycle and levels of activity affected women’s brain function. They tracked 54 women aged 18 to 40 not using hormone-based contraception and grouped them according to how much exercise they took: inactive (reported not taking part in any form of structured exercise), recreationally active (taking part in at least two hours of structured exercise a week), competing in any sport at club level, and elite (competing in any sport at national or international level).They then completed cognitive tests and reported their mood and symptoms on the first day of menstruation, two days after the end of menstruation (late follicular phase), the first day ovulation was detected, and between ovulation and menstruation (mid-luteal phase).The study, published in Sports Medicine – Open, found that women perform best on cognitive tests when they ovulate, with on average participants reacting about 30 milliseconds faster compared with later in their cycle and making fewer mistakes
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As an immigrant working in the NHS on a health and care visa, I am dismayed, disappointed, angry and terrified by Labour’s immigration reform proposals, due to their potential impact on me, on other immigrants and on all British society (NHS could cease to function under Labour’s new visa rules, say nurses, 6 October).Until the immigration white paper was published, I naively assumed that anti-immigrant sentiment was restricted to the Tories and Reform UK. When Labour came to power, I felt tremendous relief and a budding sense of safety and optimism. I soon learned how naive I was. Betrayed and used, I now fear that I will lose my job and my home
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