#47 - Pushing responsible AI in health - Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite - HealthAI

How can we solve the puzzle of regulating AI in healthcare?

This is the question that Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite and his team at HealthAI - The Global Agency for Responsible AI in Health ask themselves every day.

Their goal?

To help international organizations, governments, and local stakeholders strike a balance between regulation and access to the latest innovation in the field.

A thorny equation, considering the speed of progress in AI and the time it takes to establish a regulatory framework that, by definition, applies in the long term.

With passion and enthusiasm, Ricardo shares the approach they are taking to achieve their mission: by fostering a global community to share best practices and adverse events, by building tailored

in-country mechanisms aligned with international guidelines, and by curating the most comprehensive directory of registered AI solutions, which countries and innovators can consider.

One thing seems certain: we must evaluate these new technologies from a risk-benefit perspective, drawing on the well-known methods of post-market monitoring that have been applied to pharmaceutical products for decades.

A way to remain critical of their use, grant patients and healthcare professionals access to them, and to drive this transformative shift with confidence and security.

Timeline:

• 00:00:00 - Ricardo's background at the interface of medicine, research, and health policy
• 00:04:55 - Why we are at a turning point in healthcare
• 00:08:33 - HealthAI's role in translating international guidelines for AI use in healthcare to local realities
• 00:13:08 - Bridging long-term regulation and rapid technological progress
• 00:21:55 - Curating the right AI solutions in healthcare
• 00:25:55 - Building trust and adoption among clinicians and patients
• 00:32:26 - The parallel between elevators and AI in healthcare
• 00:37:30 - The potential of AI for predictive population health management

What we also talked about with Ricardo:

• HIMSS Europe
• Software as a Medical Device (SaMD)
• Stéphanie Allassonniere
• Agentic AI
• Ambient AI
• Elisha Otis

As Ricardo mentioned during the episode, you can learn more about HealthAI here and follow their activities on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.

The books recommended in the episode include AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference by Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor, Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia, and Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson.

We both strongly recommend the newsletter Ground Truths by Dr. Eric Topol, a reference for staying up to date on the latest advances in medicine.

You can get in touch with Ricardo via LinkedIn.

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