Pressing issues in healthcare digital technologies and AI

As we move into 2023 it is a useful exercise to engage in some horizon scanning and to think about issues that might lie ahead. In the context of the subjects that I research, patient safety and the law, there is no shortage of future-facing concerns. This year we expect a government consultation paper on reform in NHS clinical negligence litigation (Hyde, 2022) and we are still digesting the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee (2022) inquiry into the same topic.

At the same time we can reflect on the changes brought to NHS care delivery by COVID-19 and how these are likely to continue. I am thinking here particularly about the innovative changes and developments in patient—GP consultations via digital conferencing applications and more remote consultations. The pandemic brought both positive and negative changes to aspects of healthcare delivery and treatment. Some newspaper headlines even herald a new age of health digital technological advances. Writing in the Independent,Wright (2022) discussed new artificial intelligence (AI) that can diagnose pneumonia by listening to someone cough: