AMA Journal of Ethics

Guidance for organizations using AI tools to diagnose and to develop treatment recommendations can also help clinicians consider risks and benefits.

In 2018, the AMA provided a broad framework for evolving AI in health care designed to help realize the benefits it promises for patients and clinicians.

Professional society guidelines can be used to set standards for clinical practice instead of government. This approach could help if federal or state policymakers view discarding embryos as ethically equivalent to abortion.

False health-related speech can cause harm, but it’s not restricted unless it’s obscene. Physicians are obliged not only to correct patients’ false beliefs, but to engage digital spaces in which false claims thrive.

Mandatory genetic testing of health care professionals could help structure health care organizations’ responses to a pandemic. Patients and more susceptible employees can benefit, and these benefits must be weighed against concerns about fairness, autonomy, genetic privacy, and potential loss of employment opportunities.

Though the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s collection of disaggregated genetic data for occupational surveillance and research raises numerous privacy concerns, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 allows genetic information to be used to develop personal pharmaceuticals.

Clinical decision support systems leverage data generated in the course of standard clinical care to improve clinical practice. They need to ensure privacy and quality of patients’ data, but must also allow queries of electronic health records.

Successful implementation of initiatives to improve screening and access to health-promotion activities at minority-serving religious institutions requires partnering with faith-based organizations, adapting interventions, and leveraging organizational infrastructure and social networks.