MedAICine – Social and Ethical Aspects of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine

This image is AI-generated. It was created using DALL-E, using the prompt “radiological image with an AI generated heat map laid over”

People (working on the project at the STS Department): Prof. Dr. Ruth Müller, Prof. Dr. Alena Buyx, Svenja Breuer, Theresa Willem.

As artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) continue to advance and permeate healthcare and medicine, it is crucial that we consider the ethical and social implications of these developments. From issues of bias and discrimination, privacy and autonomy, transparency and accountability, to questions of human-machine interaction, the ethical and social issues surrounding medical AI are complex and multifaceted and need to be addressed carefully and responsibly.

MedAIcine addresses key challenges and tensions regarding the responsible design and use of AI in medical imaging. Applying an embedded ethics and social science approach, the project team of science and technology studies (STS), philosophy, and ethics researchers investigates social and ethical aspects emerging in medical AI research and implementation empirically. We conduct case studies of ML in radiology, dermatology, and endoscopy, using a process of long-term integrated collaboration with technological and medical researchers and practitioners. Our research foci include issues of trust, privacy, transparency, explainability, and responsibility in relation to medical AI technologies, physician and patient perceptions of these technologies, and issues of bias and equity in data collection and analysis.

MedAIcine is the first pilot project of the Center for Responsible AI Technologies, founded by the University of Augsburg (UNIA), the Munich School of Philosophy (HFPH) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in February 2022. The Center pursues the goal of bringing consideration of philosophical, ethical, and social science questions and problems into the entire process of AI technology development and implementation.