In the latter part of this year, a code of conduct for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare will be introduced by the NHS, England, announced Harpreet Sood, associate CCIO at NHS England, at The King’s Fund’s Digital Health and Care Congress 2018 on 11 July.

Sood said NHS England was hoping to publish a “basic terminology of what AI means” and a code of conduct later in 2018 in response to a question by an audience member about concerns regarding AI use in the NHS, adding that the documents will help provide ‘principles’, ‘guidance’ and ‘transparency’ for the use of AI within the NHS.

The prospective benefits of AI use in the NHS have garnered a lot of interest among the medical community in recent months. Consequently, the Prime Minister announced in May 2018 that the NHS and technology companies should use AI as a “new weapon” in research.

However, AI use brings with it the issue of data protection. For instance, an investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) which looked into Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust transporting data to DeepMind to evaluate an acute kidney injury alert app called Streams.

Eric Topol, an expert in cardiology, genetics and digital medicine, is presently leading a report into the need of training NHS staff to use AI and robotics. It signifies that there are no official guidelines from NHS England.