In Veneto, an AI will decide the priority of patients, but the Guarantor wants to see clearly

Veneto entrusts an artificial intelligence system with the task of establishing waiting times for medical services. Each patient will be assigned a different score, with different levels of urgency depending on their clinical picture.

A task that once awaited flesh-and-blood medical personnel. Are we sure it’s legal? There is no shortage of doubts and, in fact, the Guarantor wants to see clearly. The Region will have to provide the authority with the information necessary to understand how this system works and, in particular, will have to provide reassurances on respect for patients’ right to privacy.

The Guarantor for the protection of personal data – we learn from a press release published in these hours – is verifying the compliance with the privacy legislation of a resolution of the Veneto Region, which provides for the use of a system based on artificial intelligence to establish the times waiting for the prescribed medical services, instead of leaving this decision to general practitioners.

The Region will have to indicate the legal rule underlying the treatment, the type of algorithm used, the databases and the types of information and clinical documents that would be processed

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can be read on the Guarantor’s website.

The Guarantor sent a request for information to the Veneto Region and asked to provide details on the use of algorithms, the data processed and the methods of informing the patients involved. The Veneto Region has 20 days to provide this information.