AMA, the mutual insurance company for health professionalsbrought together high-level speakers to discuss “Artificial intelligence and civil liability” in a working group organized within the framework of the XXX Health Law Congress with the aim of analyzing the most pressing challenges involved in the implementation of AI.
The event, attended by over 400 people, was directed and moderated by RQue Murillo, general director and head of the Professional Civil Liability branch of the mutualwhich was represented by its president, Ana Pastor, in the presence of advisors from the AMA and Ama Vida, administrators of the Foundation and presidents of the Councils and professional health associations.
The Director General of the AMA began her speech by highlighting the real revolution that certain artificial intelligence tools are already causing in the field of health, favoring, as she explained, “the possibility of developing personalized, preventive and precision medicine. »
But beyond the advantages, the use of these new technologies and artificial intelligence “exposes us to new risks, most of them unknown until now, which They cause trouble and which require an adequate and precise ethical and legal response.
One of the issues which raises multiple questions is that of professional civil liability in the event of a diagnostic or therapeutic error. “The European Union Regulation 2924/1689 was recently approved, but there is still a long way to go,” he said.
Following, Dr. Benjamín Herreros Ruiz-Valdepeñas, discussed the ethical and legal issues of artificial intelligence in clinical practice.
During his speech, he highlighted that one of the great advantages of AI in medicine is its rapid ability to analyze data to generate conclusions, which has positive consequences for healthcare. Likewise, he emphasized that he did not have biases or cognitive errors like fatigue.
He Dr. Ignacio Hernández Medrano, specialist in neurology and co-founder SAVANA and MEDELIAN systems, referred to artificial intelligence in neurology and said that “AI can see things it is not designed to do. So today, thanks to AI, we can see pancreatic cancer that will develop within seven years, or with 10 seconds of voice recording we can know a patient’s heart risk. »
The laureate Princess of Girona nevertheless insisted that “in an environment where machines have answers, the relevant thing is always to ask the right question. Even though generative AI shines brightly, it does not generate new knowledge, it only improves existing knowledge. “Generative AI is not scientifically validable, it must be used in conjunction with discriminative AI. »
Then, to address the liability and insurance of civil liability in relation to artificial intelligence, Joaquín Ruiz Echauri, partner responsible for the insurance and reinsurance sector of Pérez-Llorca Abogados, intervened.
Ruiz Echauri stressed that it is important that “health professions respect established standards in order to protect us.” In this sense, he emphasized that “today we have a proposal for a directive on AI and it will take three to five years. “This is a rule that aims to resolve the problem of the legal principle of the burden of proof.”
Finally, César Tolosa, magistrate at the Constitutional Court, He focused on the protection of fundamental rights in the application of artificial intelligence in healthcare.
As he explained, the Spanish legal system faces the following problems related to AI: the first, the reform of the figure of computer consent, and the second, the figure of responsibility. “On the reform of figure of computer consent It must be taken into account that the patient must know which algorithmic systems are going to be applied. Regarding the issue of liability, several scenarios present themselves. First, the AI is perfect and the doctor can abuse it. Another, that the error could be that of the AI which offers incorrect data. Finally, not knowing whose responsibility lies, for which we will have to resort to competing responsibilities,” he said.
