Reshaping the Patient-Physician Relationship through Artificial Intelligence in Medicine? ‒Promises, Opportunities, and Ethical Challenges

Abstract

With the rapid development of AI in medicine, it is to be expected that new asymmetries will arise in the doctor-patient relationship and normative terms such as patient autonomy, paternalism, trust, and confidentiality will acquire new meanings and functions. All of these developments will create new and complex ethical questions. Some of these questions will be analyzed and reflected in this article. It is argued that if AI improves healthcare and promotes the well-being of the patient–without violating the fundamental rights of others–it must be viewed as morally right and should not be fundamentally rejected. On the other hand, it should also be reflected what will be changed by the application of AI in healthcare and whether these changes are desirable, legally appropriate, and ethically justifiable. Therefore, we need investigations from the perspective of ethics and other humanities to go along with the establishment of AI applications in medicine simultaneously and not after the event.