Minisymposium Presentation

Data mining and artificial intelligence (AI) have become an increasingly used method of medical research in recent years. The primary goal is to identify patterns that can prevent diseases, enhance and accelerate diagnostic as well as therapeutic interventions. This aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3: "Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages". Every medical appointment generates data that can be valuable for data-driven medical research. The quality of this data improves with number of individuals and the data points per individual. Commonly sharing patient data across medical institutions could advance data driven medical research. However, this approach raises concerns about individual autonomy and privacy. Addressing this ethical conflict is crucial and far from being trivial. How can a widely accepted balance between ethical principals be found? Is the current practice of obtaining informed consent from patients sufficient to protect their privacy in the face of AI-driven data analysis?