Personalized Medicine, Predictive Algorithms and the Use of Automated Decision Systems in Healthcare. Ethical Issues

Abstract

We live what is already the birth of a new era, characterized by the development of new Artificial Intelligence tools, the so-called machine learning systems, based on algorithms capable of learning by themselves. This technology is extremely promising, as it offers substantial improvements in many aspects of our lives, including health care. The use of Artificial Intelligence in this sector will surely allow an improvement in our capacity for diagnosis and prognosis. However, it also poses major ethical and legal problems. These include the possibility of authorising automated decisions or the need to provide patients with adequate information; problems relating to the design and validation of these instruments; issues relating to the use of personal data for their use, or the possibility that they may end up generating serious social discrimination. This text sets out these problems and tries to come up with some proposals for solutions.