[Paper Review] Integrating Artificial Intelligence and Humanities in Healthcare

Zohaib Tariq|arXiv (Cornell University)|Feb 13, 2023

Empathy and Medical Education4 citations

TL;DR

This paper proposes a synergistic integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Medical Humanities to address critical challenges in healthcare by merging data-driven AI capabilities with the ethical, cultural, and humanistic insights of medical humanities. The approach enhances clinical decision-making, patient-centered care, and ethical AI development through interdisciplinary collaboration.

ABSTRACT

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Medical Humanities have become two of the most crucial and rapidly growing fields in the current world. AI has made substantial advancements in recent years, enabling the development of algorithms and systems that can perform tasks traditionally done by humans. Medical Humanities, on the other hand, is the intersection of medical sciences, humanities, and the social sciences, and deals with the cultural, historical, philosophical, ethical, and social aspects of health, illness, and medicine. The integration of AI and Medical Humanities can offer innovative solutions to some of the pressing issues in the medical field.

Motivation & Objective

• To address the growing complexity of healthcare by combining AI's analytical power with the humanistic understanding of medicine.
• To overcome the limitations of purely technical AI applications in clinical settings by incorporating ethical, cultural, and philosophical perspectives.
• To foster more empathetic, equitable, and context-aware AI systems in medicine.
• To establish a framework for interdisciplinary collaboration between AI researchers and humanities scholars in healthcare.

Proposed method

• The paper proposes a conceptual framework for integrating AI systems with medical humanities principles such as ethics, narrative medicine, and bioethics.
• It emphasizes the use of AI not only for diagnostics and prediction but also for enhancing patient-provider communication and empathy.
• The method involves embedding ethical guidelines and cultural sensitivity into AI design through input from humanities scholars and clinicians.
• It advocates for interdisciplinary education and co-creation of AI tools involving medical professionals, ethicists, and humanists.
• The framework supports iterative development of AI tools with continuous feedback from diverse stakeholders.
• It promotes transparency and interpretability in AI systems by aligning algorithmic outputs with humanistic values such as dignity and autonomy.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 How can AI systems in healthcare be designed to respect patient autonomy and cultural diversity?
• RQ2 What role do ethical and philosophical principles from medical humanities play in shaping responsible AI applications?
• RQ3 In what ways can narrative and empathetic understanding improve AI-driven clinical decision-making?
• RQ4 How can interdisciplinary collaboration between AI experts and humanities scholars lead to more trustworthy healthcare technologies?

Key findings

• The integration of AI and medical humanities leads to more ethically sound and contextually appropriate healthcare technologies.
• AI systems enriched with humanistic insights demonstrate improved alignment with patient values and preferences.
• Interdisciplinary collaboration enhances the transparency and trustworthiness of AI in clinical environments.
• The framework supports the development of AI tools that go beyond clinical accuracy to include empathy, dignity, and social context.