Medical artificial intelligence (AI) company AITRICS said on the 16th it has developed the first AI ethics checklist in the healthcare sector in collaboration with the Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI).
The ethics checklist was designed to assess compliance with ethical standards across the entire lifecycle of AI-based digital medical devices, from development and operation to post-management, and consists of 10 key requirements and detailed evaluation items.
The checklist is part of KISDI’s project to develop an AI ethics evaluation framework. AITRICS participated in the project, which was carried out late last year, as a representative company in the AI healthcare sector and jointly established evaluation criteria reflecting the characteristics of medical AI.
As AI technology rapidly expands across the medical field, the importance of ethical responsibility — including patient safety, data protection and ensuring clinicians’ decision-making authority — is being increasingly emphasized. In particular, as medical AI technology is directly linked to patients’ lives, there is growing demand for establishing trustworthy usage standards beyond technical performance.
Against this backdrop, the ethics checklist was structured around 10 key elements covering the overall AI healthcare field: human rights protection, privacy protection, respect for diversity, non-infringement, public interest, solidarity, data management, accountability, safety and transparency. This enables a systematic assessment of various ethical issues that may arise in the development and application of medical AI.
Based on this, AITRICS plans to review compliance with ethical standards throughout the development and operation of its AI solutions and continue strengthening its internal management system to ensure stable use of medical AI in clinical settings. The company also expects the checklist to contribute to enhancing trust in the technology and promoting its stable adoption and wider use in the medical field by clarifying ethical standards for medical AI.
CEO Kim Kwang-jun said, “The AI ethics checklist reflects key elements such as patient safety, clinicians’ autonomy and the security of medical data, and is meaningful in that it serves as a standard demonstrating that our technology fulfills ethical and social responsibilities,” adding, “We will continue to lead the industry by advancing both technological innovation and the establishment of ethical standards.”