WHO warns of the rapid increase in the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare

The World Health Organization (WHO) in Europe has warned about the rapid rise in the use of artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector.

WHO Europe stated that this rapid increase could “occur without the essential legal safeguards needed to protect patients and healthcare workers.”

A report published on Wednesday on the UN News website highlighted that preparedness remains uneven and fragmented: only 4 out of 50 countries in the European region have a national strategy dedicated to AI in health, while seven other countries are currently developing one.

The report also noted the growing importance of AI tools in health systems across the region, with 32 countries already using AI-assisted diagnostic technologies.

Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, warned that although AI has become a reality for millions of healthcare professionals and patients across the region, “without clear strategies, data protection, legal frameworks, and investment in AI literacy, we risk deepening inequalities instead of reducing them.”

Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, Director of Health Systems at WHO Europe, further cautioned that AI could either be used to improve people’s health and well-being, ease the burden on exhausted healthcare workers, and reduce healthcare costs, or it could undermine patient safety, violate privacy, and entrench inequalities in care.

According to the same report, “regulations across the region are struggling to keep up with technological developments, with nearly nine out of ten countries saying that legal uncertainty is the main barrier to adopting AI.”