Banu Buruk

ABSTRACT

An Ethical Analysis of the AI Values/Principles in “Turkey's AI strategy Plan” for  Improving Patients' Access to Health Care

Assistant Professor Banu Buruk

TOBB ETU University School of Medicine

Professor Berna Arda

TOBB ETU University School of Medicine

Turkish National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (TNAIS) has been prepared in line with the 11th Development Plan and the Presidential Annual Programs of the Republic of Turkey. The purpose of this strategy report is to describe the methods of determining national strategic AI priorities and set these priorities. In this report, according to the patent applications between 1980 and 2016, it is stated that the fields in which AI technologies are applied the most are communication (24%), transportation (24%) and health sciences (19%). Therefore, it is seen that almost 1/5 of all AI technologies are applied in the field of health science. It can be evaluated that AI technologies used in the field of health have a special place in the scope of the TNAIS report. The report covers four ethical values including (1) respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law, (2) improving the environment and biological ecosystem, (3) ensuring diversity and inclusion, and (4) living in peaceful, just and cohesive societies; and eight ethical principles including (1) proportionality, (2) safety and security, (3) fairness, (4) privacy, (5) transparency and explainability, (6) responsibility and accountability, (7) data sovereignty, and (8) multi-stakeholder governance. Consequently, in this study, the TNAIS report will be analyzed based on the ethical values and principles it contains within the scope of patients' access to healthcare. Then the current or prospective ethical issues emerging from the existence of AI technology used in healthcare will be addressed. Finally, the suggestions about the perspectives for approaching ethical issues when these values and principles are in conflict will be shared.

BIO

Banu BURUK is an assistant professor at the History of Medicine and Ethics Department of TOBB ETU Medical School. She is a graduate of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics of Istanbul Technical University (2005), has a master degree in Molecular Biology & Biotechnology from Istanbul Technical University (2008) and has a PhD degree in Medical History and Ethics from the Faculty of Medicine at Ankara University (2014). She served as the project manager at the Turkish Research Funding Agency (TUBITAK) between years 2006-2019. She gave seminars on research management and research ethics in different academic environments. She also served as a member of the National Open Science Committee between years 2017-2019. She visited Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in 2014 as an NIH-Fogarty Fellow, and the Western Institutional Review Board (WIRB) in 2018. Her main research and publication fields are research ethics, technology ethics, ethics of personal data usage in research and ethics education. She is a member of the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of TOBB ETU University, UNESCO Bioethics Unit at TOBB ETU, International Forum of Teachers of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics.