Artificial intelligence (AI) has been at the core of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. In turn, the pandemic has accelerated the development of AI technologies in the field of healthcare, with immediate implications in the improvement of clinical diagnoses and the enhanced precision of medical interventions.

The revolutionary advent of AI in healthcare has the potential for both disruptive advances and extraordinary benefits, with many unknowns and sensitive ethical and social issues. As with other technological advances, AI has its own set of benefits, risks, ethical issues and societal implications. Relevant questions include how to balance such benefits against the risk of unintended harms, how to govern the use of these technologies, and how to incorporate societal values into salient clinical and policy considerations.

This STOA workshop will present a STOA study on AI health-related applications and their potential to transform healthcare in the EU and worldwide. A discussion panel on the application of digital health applications in the context of Covid-19 will follow. Experts will discuss outstanding ethical, regulatory and policy challenges, and address possible policy options targeted at enhancing AI governance.

Programme

10:00 - 10:05 - Welcome

Eva KAILI, Vice-President of the European Parliament and Chair of the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA)

10:05 - 10:15 - Presentation of the STOA study: 'Artificial Intelligence in healthcare: Applications, risks, ethical and societal impacts'

Karim LEKADIR, Researcher and Director of the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Lab at the University of Barcelona

10:15 - 10:30 - Q&A

Moderator: Eva KAILI, VP and Chair of STOA

10:30 - 10:40 - Introductory remarks

Anna ASIMAKOPOULOU, MEP and STOA Panel member

10:40 - 11:50 - Panel discussion on digital health tools - Governance and practice

Timo MINSSEN, Professor of Law at the UCPH and Founding Director of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Biomedical Innovation Law, UCPH

Effy VAYENA, Professor of Bioethics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich and Chair of the Hellenic Commission for Bioethics and Technoethics

Elettra RONCHI, Senior Policy Consultant in Digital Health and Data Governance, WHO/Europe

Alessandro BLASIMME, Senior Scientist, Health Ethics and Policy Lab, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich

(short 10 min talks by each speaker followed by discussion)

Moderator: Anna ASIMAKOPOULOU, MEP and STOA Panel member

11:50 - 12:00 - Closing remarks

Anna ASIMAKOPOULOU, MEP and STOA Panel member

The event will be held in English only, without interpretation.
The event will be webstreamed, the link will be published below.