Former Health Minister Stephen Donnelly believes public must become comfortable with use of AI in health service

Irish Independent

a day ago

Stephen Donnelly, who was Minister of Health and is a Health Consultant, was speaking during a panel discussion at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal.
During the discussion on 'Taboo Ideas to Transform Ireland?', Mr Donnelly said he believed Ireland could be a global leader in AI related health care.
He said for the country to succeed in the field, the public would have to become comfortable sharing their data with AI platforms and algorithms.
The host of the panel, Jess Majekodunmi, Design Historian & Innovation Researcher said there is a lot of anxiety and concerns about the use of AI and she questioned if the use of AI is already creeping into the health service.
Mr Donnelly said the use of AI and algorithms is increasing and already present in the health service.
'In more and more GP services now, we may not know it, but there is an algorithm listening to the entire conversation, categorising what we say and when we leave, it is saying, Stephen referenced these four things, you never checked them.
'In more hospitals in Ireland now, there is a machine beside the bed and the patient is wired up to it and it is monitoring all sorts of stuff at a level of complexity that doctors and nurses will struggle to maintain consistently and flagging saying this person is going to crash in half an hour, you need to intervene.
'AI is coming in to help clinicians anyway.
'If you go into your hospital today or your GP, there is a decent chance it will already be involved in some way,' said Mr Donnelly.
However, Mr Donnelly said all advances must link back to a human being and there must be transparency for it to be a success.
'Within healthcare there has to be accountability.
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'There has to be security of data, and we probably need to have a complex conversation by being very respectful of people's anxieties, very respectful of the fact it is new and people are trying to get their head around it,' said Mr Donnelly.
When asked by Ms Majekodunmi about his predictions for the timescale of the developments, Mr Donnelly said it is moving so quickly it is difficult to say.
'I would be very surprised if healthcare does not look quite different 10 years from now,' said he said.
However, he said in order for the development to be introduced on a wider scale, people must get more comfortable with the use of AI.
'Most of us would have to be comfortable sharing our data and I mean data right down to the genetic level.
'In order for these things to work you have to have a big pool of data and it is much better if it is national data rather than international data.
'If we could get our heads around becoming comfortable with AI and the idea that this is a public good and our data is a public good with the right protections around it, we could become one of the handful of countries in the world that does something truly mind blowing and extraordinary and flips our entire concept of what a public health service is, into one that keeps us well.
'It is very important to me anyway that it is a public service. It cannot be something that only wealthy people can afford.' Mr Donnelly.
He said the introduction of AI and new technologies would see a major move towards preventative healthcare.
Mr Donnelly used the example of who fells unwell and visits their GP who carries out a number of tests. The patient is then diagnosed with Type Two Diabetes.
However, with the new technology, the patient would get an alert notifying the patient of changes in their cells which if left untreated, could result in Type 2 Diabetes in five years.
'All over the world, the health service says if you get sick, we will fix you.
'There is a wave off innovation coming.
'AI is the glue that holds a lot of it together, but it is geo typing, robotics, genetics, bio printing, printing replacement organs in hospitals rather than having to use donors.
'There is a vast wave coming.
'The entire purpose of a health service shifts from one that tries to fix you when you get sick to one that keeps you well for as long as possible.
'And then inevitably, if something bad happens, can fix you,' said Mr Donnelly.
Mr Donnelly said he believes Ireland is 'incredibly placed' to be a world leader in innovative healthcare.
'I would love to see us make a stand on this and say look we have a healthcare service that is getting better at an incredible rate.
'We are rolling out a new health strategy, so we are going to have the digital infrastructure in place soon enough.
'We have a pharma hub, a health tech hub, a digital hub so we have brains to burn around the country in terms of some of the things that can happen.
'We have a very attractive country for these things.
'It is big enough that you can really roll these things out but small and integrated enough that you can get your head around doing it at the population level,' said Mr Donnelly.