Abstract
The growth of India as a hub of medical tourism and high-class healthcare facilities has increased the ever-growing demand for incorporating AI and digital systems in healthcare practices and related activities. The current government policies and schemes largely focus on transitioning the country into a ‘Digital India’ society. The medical sector is one of the primary areas where changes are being implemented for a technological revolution. AI is, therefore, being hailed for streamlining the otherwise overburdened and complex healthcare sector by easing communication with patients, collecting and computerizing medical data, providing early and personalized diagnosis and easy access to information, and even using robotics to aid surgical procedures. However, the goal of a digitally empowered medical sector lacks the infrastructural and regulatory means to achieve it effectively. India lacks regulatory mechanisms to address AI’s potential ethical and legal violations, raising the question of identifying whom to hold accountable and liable. Growing dependency on AI overlooks the lack of a structural base that addresses AI governance and its issues in the healthcare industry. The current legal framework is insufficient and lacks the required guidelines to regulate AI in medical practices. Informed consent, protection of privacy, accountability and responsibility, data hacks and leaks, diagnosis and treatment errors, and patient confidentiality are some of the crucial issues that can challenge the constructive integration of digital mechanisms and AI in the medical sector for fruitful results. This paper will provide a descriptive analysis of AI as a tool and discuss the opportunities and benefits of AI and digital healthcare for patients and workers in the medical sector. It will also review the legal and ethical challenges and the underlying risks associated with the functioning of AI without any institutional limitations. Furthermore, the existing legal framework and policies relating to healthcare will be studied to understand how new policies and guidelines to incorporate AI can be formulated. The paper will, therefore, explore and highlight the need for making AI systems and mechanisms in healthcare accountable and responsible by understanding their benefits, challenges, and prospects.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, legal framework, data privacy, ethics, Indian healthcare.