Researchers Urge Caution on AI-Integrated Healthcare Systems

Georgia Tech researchers warn that AI healthcare imagines a patient who is "affluent, able-bodied, tech-savvy, and always available." Those who don’t fit that mold, they argue, risk becoming invisible in the healthcare system.

In their study, published in the Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the researchers analyzed 21 AI-driven health tools, ranging from fertility apps and wearable devices to diagnostic platforms and chatbots. They used sociological theory to understand the vision of the future these tools promote — and the patients they leave out.

“These systems envision care that is seamless, automatic, and always on,” said Catherine Wieczorek, a Ph.D. student in human-centered computing in the School of Interactive Computing and lead author of the study. “But they also flatten the messy realities of illness, disability, and socioeconomic complexity.”