Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

Artificial intelligence, healthcare and the pandemic

Selin Sayek-Böke 5th June 2020

The coronavirus crisis demands a regulatory framework for the application of AI to protect public health without jeopardising human rights.

AI and healthcare
Selin Sayek Böke

Our world has been shaken by the Covid-19 pandemic, pushing policy-makers to scramble for solutions. And even though the full set of such solutions remains elusive, already a return to normal is debated. 

But what will this ‘normal’ be? Powerful forces presume that the world before Covid-19 is the normal to which to return and it falls on progressives to push for new fundamentals—to help formulate a ‘new’ normal. Clearly this is multifaceted and one facet is the role of technology. 

Undeniable role

Artificial intelligence, as a revolutionary force in restructuring production and consumption patterns, has long been on the agenda of policy-makers. The role of AI, as a creative but disruptive process in the job market, in healthcare, in education—even in shaping our democracies—is undeniable. 

Given the health focus of the continuing crisis, overcoming the regulatory, ethical and medical challenges posed by the use of AI in healthcare must be a priority. Defining the framework to do so will be a pivotal initial step in guaranteeing that the new normal produces a fair outcome—that fundamental rights are safeguarded while simultaneously improving healthcare for all. 


Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content. We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Sign up here

If supported by adequate and effective regulation, AI promises a wide array of opportunities to improve public health as well as the quality and efficiency of the healthcare sector. Without such a framework, AI has the potential to be just another instrument in a system where rights are sidelined for profit maximisation and biases are reproduced systemically.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is preparing a number of reports on the implications of AI. As rapporteur on AI in healthcare, I must point to existing Council of Europe legal instruments—such as the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine (the Oviedo convention) and the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to the Automatic Processing of Personal Data—as guides for national regulatory efforts.

Tracking and tracing

Clearly AI has played a critical role in the initial detection of the pandemic. It has been used in tracking the spread of disease and hospital capacity, in identifying high-risk patients and in developing drugs and, potentially, a vaccine. Maybe the most visible public debate regarding AI in healthcare has been over ‘testing and tracing’ apps, which have been claimed as important tools to control the spread of the virus and provide valuable information to design strategies for exit from lockdown. 

AI’s highly promising potential for the future of public health in Europe is however not the only reality which the pandemic has laid bare. It has offered a stark reminder of socio-economic inequalities—of the need to restrain over-marketisation and regulate markets, and to govern potential conflicts between ethical principles and market forces. 

The lasting legacy of neoliberalism is manifested most notably in privatised healthcare and highly precarious job markets. This has aggravated the consequences of the pandemic, particularly for working people, for the unemployed and for the precariat. The unequal social and economic structures established and reinforced under neoliberal hegemony impede our capacity to address the challenges it has thrown up. 

Equally, had there been a trusted and well-defined regulatory framework, maybe AI could have had a much larger positive impact on the coronavirus crisis. The public’s concern regarding the misuse and abuse of data by states, as well as the private sector, would have been mitigated.

Totalitarian drift

We need to set a new framework capable of creating social benefits from AI while safeguarding fundamental rights and democratic governance and ensuring equality. These questions fit snugly into the debate as to what the ‘new’ normal will be: will the means of surveillance for the sake of health purposes accelerate a totalitarian drift or will they be governed by an empowered citizenry? And will isolationist reflexes deepen or will multilateralism, co-operation and solidarity rise to the challenge? 

These questions are relevant to any discussion of AI and healthcare—the former to a regulatory framework that will ensure protection of human rights, the latter to whether AI in healthcare will be driven by co-operation and solidarity or, in their absence, profit-seeking objectives. 


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

Evidently, health and personal privacy can never be alternatives—they must go hand in hand. Public trust in the state and the private sector can only prevail if all their agents guarantee basic human rights in developing and using AI. 

Given the urgency of doing so in the struggle against the coronavirus, it is of utmost importance to agree on at least a workable basic framework that will enhance trust and make AI operational for the better. And the Covid-19 outbreak has shed light on its critical aspects.

Empowering citizens

Such a framework should ensure that AI in healthcare empowers citizens in making better-informed decisions and provides information to hold governments accountable for the decisions they make. So that AI does not become instrumental in aggravating inequalities, it should also ensure that data and algorithms are unbiased, and that processes are transparent and inclusive. 

It should be based on well-defined liability and a well-balanced public-private dialogue. It should put in place the conditions and guarantees to ensure that pursuing the collective interest does not override individual rights. It should require that technology used for monitoring and tracking is only used temporarily and does not become a permanent feature. 

When the new regulatory framework is designed, the point of departure should be recognition of access to healthcare and protection of personal data and privacy as fundamental, indispensable rights. Technology-driven opportunities such as AI should be incorporated into healthcare systems in ways that guarantees equal access while safeguarding those rights. Only then will we not only overcome this pandemic but ensure we are ready to tackle the next one better. 

CHP,Republican People's Party,Istanbul convention,Turkey
Selin Sayek-Böke

Selin Sayek-Böke is secretary general of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe. She previously held assistant, visiting and associate professor roles respectively in economics at the universities of Bentley, Georgetown and Bilkent and worked for the International Monetary Fund and with the World Bank.

You are here: Home / Politics / Artificial intelligence, healthcare and the pandemic

About Selin Sayek-Böke

Selin Sayek-Böke is secretary general of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe. She previously held assistant, visiting and associate professor roles respectively in economics at the universities of Bentley, Georgetown and Bilkent and worked for the International Monetary Fund and with the World Bank.

Most Popular Posts

Russian soldiers' mothers,war,Ukraine The Ukraine war and Russian soldiers’ mothersJennifer Mathers and Natasha Danilova
IGU,documents,International Gas Union,lobby,lobbying,sustainable finance taxonomy,green gas,EU,COP ‘Gaslighting’ Europe on fossil fuelsFaye Holder
Schengen,Fortress Europe,Romania,Bulgaria Romania and Bulgaria stuck in EU’s second tierMagdalena Ulceluse
income inequality,inequality,Gini,1 per cent,elephant chart,elephant Global income inequality: time to revise the elephantBranko Milanovic
Orbán,Hungary,Russia,Putin,sanctions,European Union,EU,European Parliament,commission,funds,funding Time to confront Europe’s rogue state—HungaryStephen Pogány

Most Recent Posts

reality check,EU foreign policy,Russia Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—a reality check for the EUHeidi Mauer, Richard Whitman and Nicholas Wright
permanent EU investment fund,Recovery and Resilience Facility,public investment,RRF Towards a permanent EU investment fundPhilipp Heimberger and Andreas Lichtenberger
sustainability,SDGs,Finland Embedding sustainability in a government programmeJohanna Juselius
social dialogue,social partners Social dialogue must be at the heart of Europe’s futureClaes-Mikael Ståhl
Jacinda Ardern,women,leadership,New Zealand What it means when Jacinda Ardern calls timePeter Davis

Other Social Europe Publications

front cover scaled Towards a social-democratic century?
Cover e1655225066994 National recovery and resilience plans
Untitled design The transatlantic relationship
Women Corona e1631700896969 500 Women and the coronavirus crisis
sere12 1 RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

The macroeconomic effects of re-applying the EU fiscal rules

Against the background of the European Commission's reform plans for the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), this policy brief uses the macroeconometric multi-country model NiGEM to simulate the macroeconomic implications of the most relevant reform options from 2024 onwards. Next to a return to the existing and unreformed rules, the most prominent options include an expenditure rule linked to a debt anchor.

Our results for the euro area and its four biggest economies—France, Italy, Germany and Spain—indicate that returning to the rules of the SGP would lead to severe cuts in public spending, particularly if the SGP rules were interpreted as in the past. A more flexible interpretation would only somewhat ease the fiscal-adjustment burden. An expenditure rule along the lines of the European Fiscal Board would, however, not necessarily alleviate that burden in and of itself.

Our simulations show great care must be taken to specify the expenditure rule, such that fiscal consolidation is achieved in a growth-friendly way. Raising the debt ceiling to 90 per cent of gross domestic product and applying less demanding fiscal adjustments, as proposed by the IMK, would go a long way.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ILO advertisement

Global Wage Report 2022-23: The impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power

The International Labour Organization's Global Wage Report is a key reference on wages and wage inequality for the academic community and policy-makers around the world.

This eighth edition of the report, The Impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power, examines the evolution of real wages, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region. The report includes evidence on how wages have evolved through the COVID-19 crisis as well as how the current inflationary context is biting into real wage growth in most regions of the world. The report shows that for the first time in the 21st century real wage growth has fallen to negative values while, at the same time, the gap between real productivity growth and real wage growth continues to widen.

The report analysis the evolution of the real total wage bill from 2019 to 2022 to show how its different components—employment, nominal wages and inflation—have changed during the COVID-19 crisis and, more recently, during the cost-of-living crisis. The decomposition of the total wage bill, and its evolution, is shown for all wage employees and distinguishes between women and men. The report also looks at changes in wage inequality and the gender pay gap to reveal how COVID-19 may have contributed to increasing income inequality in different regions of the world. Together, the empirical evidence in the report becomes the backbone of a policy discussion that could play a key role in a human-centred recovery from the different ongoing crises.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ETUI advertisement

The EU recovery strategy: a blueprint for a more Social Europe or a house of cards?

This new ETUI paper explores the European Union recovery strategy, with a focus on its potentially transformative aspects vis-à-vis European integration and its implications for the social dimension of the EU’s socio-economic governance. In particular, it reflects on whether the agreed measures provide sufficient safeguards against the spectre of austerity and whether these constitute steps away from treating social and labour policies as mere ‘variables’ of economic growth.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound webinar: Making telework work for everyone

Since 2020 more European workers and managers have enjoyed greater flexibility and autonomy in work and are reporting their preference for hybrid working. Also driven by technological developments and structural changes in employment, organisations are now integrating telework more permanently into their workplace.

To reflect on these shifts, on 6 December Eurofound researchers Oscar Vargas and John Hurley explored the challenges and opportunities of the surge in telework, as well as the overall growth of telework and teleworkable jobs in the EU and what this means for workers, managers, companies and policymakers.


WATCH THE WEBINAR HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

The winter issue of the Progressive Post magazine from FEPS is out!

The sequence of recent catastrophes has thrust new words into our vocabulary—'polycrisis', for example, even 'permacrisis'. These challenges have multiple origins, reinforce each other and cannot be tackled individually. But could they also be opportunities for the EU?

This issue offers compelling analyses on the European health union, multilateralism and international co-operation, the state of the union, political alternatives to the narrative imposed by the right and much more!


DOWNLOAD HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube