10 takeaways from WHO guidance on AI in healthcare

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) issued a resource for Canadian doctors to help them understand the main points of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s guidance on using AI in healthcare.The WHO recommendations are targeted to the use of Large Multimodal Models (LMMs), the type of AI that generates new content such as video, images or text. WHO offered more than 40 recommendations in the 98-page document, some of which are specifically for healthcare providers. Other recommendations are for governments and technology companies. The guidance builds on previous guidance issued by WHO in June 2021.The CMA provided 10 takeaways from the WHO guidance:Protect patient and clinician autonomy: Ensure humans are central in clinical decisions and clearly state when AI influences careRequire strong privacy and data protection safeguards: Make sure patients give meaningful informed consent and give patients the ability to delete informationEnact laws and policies that require providers and developers to conduct impact assessment: Address ethics, human rights, safety and data protection through AI systems’ lifespan, with an independent audit of these assessmentsRequire developers to disclose known risks and any errors that have caused harmHold developers and providers accountable for safetyEnsure clinicians can understand AI tools and explain their use to patientsLabel AI-generated contentDesign AI-driven tools without bias: Monitor to ensure they don’t add to disparities in healthcareCreate public and professional education programs: Improve clinician and patient digital literacyDesign and regulate AI to protect public interestThe World Health Organization guidance is available on its website.The resource is on the Canadian Medical Association’s website.

10 takeaways from WHO guidance on AI in healthcare

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