Promoting Responsible Use of AI in African Healthcare: Strengthening Patients’ Moral Agency

Abstract

Machine learning technologies deployed in several sub-Saharan African countries to assist medical practitioners have shown how such technologies can significantly extend the reach of limited medical personnel and equipment resources. However, while I praise the efficiency of these technologies in carrying out medical diagnosis and treatment recommendations, I raise some critical concerns about the normative shift that may occur in their usage in the region. An uncritical use or overreliance on these technologies may threaten shared decision-making between patients and doctors. While shared decision-making is an integral component of patient-centred care in contemporary medicine that must be respected, from a phenomenological perspective, the stakes are higher for sub-Saharan Africans. For Africans, the threat to shared decision-making may negatively impact a significant aspect of the community–interpersonal relationships. I contend that over-relying on these systems for clinical diagnosis and recommendations may diminish the value of interpersonal relationships between patients and doctors. I show how the practice of interpersonal relationships is integral in making a moral agent (to becoming a member of the moral community) within the sub-Saharan African value systems. Finally, this paper seeks to make novel contributions to value-sensitive healthcare/healthcare technology policies, guidelines and regulations within sub-Saharan Africa and countries in the global South that share similar ethical/cultural worldviews.