Round table: AI and Big Data: Ethical Challenges and Health Opportunities

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Abstract The recent emergence of Big Data in healthcare (including large linked data from electronic patient records (EPR) as well as streams of real-time geolocated health data collected by personal wearable devices, etc.) and the open data movement enabling sharing datasets are creating new challenges around ownership of personal data whilst at the same time opening new research opportunities and drives for commercial exploitation. A balance must be struck between an individual’s desire for privacy and their desire for good evidence to drive healthcare, which may sometimes be in conflict. With the increasing use of mobile and wearable devices, new opportunities have been created for personalized health (tailored care to the needs of an individual), crowdsourcing, participatory surveillance, and movement of individuals pledging to become “data donors” and the “quantified self” initiative (where citizens share data through mobile device-connected technologies). These initiatives created large volumes of data with considerable potential for research through open data initiatives. In this workshop we will hear from a panel of international speakers working across the digital health, Big Data ethics, computer science, public health divide on how they have addressed the challenges presented by increased use of Big Data and AI systems in healthcare with insights drawn from their own experience to illustrate the new opportunities that development of these movements has opened up. Key messages The potential of open access to healthcare data, sharing Big Data sets and rapid development of AI technology, is enormous - so as are the challenges and barriers to achieve this goal. Policymakers, scientific and business communities should work together to find novel approaches for underlying challenges of a political and legal nature associated with use of big data for health.