AOECS Participate in European Patient Forum Meeting on Artificial Intelligence

On April 13th, Veronica Rubio, Secretary General of the Association of European Coeliac Societies (AOECS), and Tunde Koltai, Chair of the Board, engaged in the European Patient Forum Leadership Meeting centered on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Patient Advocacy.

AI is becoming increasingly integrated into healthcare. This meeting highlighted for AOECS the importance of patient organizations being actively involved in this process. The involvement of patient organizations extends beyond discussing consent for personal health data to, more importantly, identifying the problems we want to solve from the beginning and finding optimal, ethical solutions to address them.

It also became clear that AOECS needs to stay alert to future developments, especially those affecting people with coeliac disease and related gluten conditions.

The European Patient Forum session began with clear presentations aimed at explaining Artificial Intelligence, its programming, and its various uses in healthcare. Discussions centered on understanding the opportunities and limitations of AI in healthcare.

It became apparent that AI presents specific challenges regarding human values and rights, especially due to errors caused by low-quality data inputs. The perpetuation of errors and biases is a significant concern, highlighting the importance of designing AI models carefully to ensure ethical data selection and solution methods.