Dental Protection has welcomed the recent recommendations by a review into the regulation of AI in healthcare but has called on the government to go further in tackling a gap in liability legislation.
The Government announced this month that it was backing all 44 recommendations by the National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, and set out how they will be delivered across the UK.
Dr George Wright, Dental Director at Dental Protection, said: “We were pleased to contribute to the Commission’s work through our submission, and particularly welcome the recognition that greater clarity is needed around responsibilities for the deployment and use of AI in healthcare.
“As we highlighted in our Closing the AI Liability Gap report, AI is challenging existing legal frameworks and without legislative reform, dental practitioners remain at risk of becoming ‘liability sinks’ – being held solely accountable for any harm arising from AI systems over whose design and development they have little or no control.
“While the Commission acknowledged this risk, they stopped short of recommending the modernisation of product liability laws to address it. We urge the government to tackle this head on when implementing these proposals.
“AI is already beginning to transform dentistry, offering significant potential benefits for both patients and clinicians. However, it also raises important questions about safety, accountability and liability. As work continues to develop regulatory and liability frameworks for AI in healthcare, it is important that dentistry is considered alongside other parts of the health system and that the profession has a seat at the table as these approaches evolve.
“Dental Protection looks forward to continuing to engage with policymakers and regulators as these issues are taken forward.”
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Notes to editors
For further information contact: pressoffice@medicalprotection.org.
About Dental Protection
Dental Protection is a registered trademark and a trading name of The Medical Protection Society Limited (“MPS”). MPS is the world’s leading protection organisation for doctors, dentists and healthcare professionals. We protect and support the professional interests of more than 300,000 members around the world. Membership provides access to expert advice and support and can also provide, depending on the type of membership required, the right to request indemnity for any complaints or claims arising from professional practice.
Our in-house experts assist with the wide range of legal and ethical problems that arise from professional practice. This can include clinical negligence claims, complaints, medical and dental council inquiries, legal and ethical dilemmas, disciplinary procedures, inquests and fatal accident inquiries.
Our philosophy is to support safe practice in medicine and dentistry by helping to avert problems in the first place. We do this by promoting risk management through our E-learning, clinical risk assessments, publications, conferences, lectures and presentations.
MPS is not an insurance company. All the benefits of membership of MPS are discretionary as set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association.