Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 25 March 2026
430. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Minister for Health to outline her position on the use of AI scribes in healthcare; the current use and safeguards; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23010/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraAI scribes are an early example of where AI can make a meaningful difference specifically in the area of healthcare provision. Amongst all the AI technologies that have emerged since Chat GTP raised public consciousness of the potential impact of AI on everyday lives, AI scribes seems to have gathered particular momentum in healthcare settings in jurisdictions all over the world. For instance, Canada has already established a federal programme to select suitable products, agree price limits and fund their use by GPs across all of Canada for the first year of use. Thereafter GPs decide whether to continue to use this technology in which case it is funded by them thereafter.
This approach encourages adoption, provides assurance that GPs are using a trusted solution with clarity on pricing, and importantly, also allows the GPs themselves to decide whether this is of value to them in they daily engagement with patients. They have proven to save real time during consults and lead to more accurate patient summaries for committing to the electronic health record. Patients are given the option whether the AI scribe will be used during the consult as these solutions record the conversation in order to produce summarisations for the GP to sign off on. There is no obligation on patients to agree to their use.
As is the case with other potential applications of AI in healthcare, the final decision maker is the healthcare professional and the human must always be in the loop where care and treatment is involved, regardless of whether the AI solution is used to inform clinical decision support or simple AI scribing.The guidelines for the safe and responsible use of AI in healthcare that are currently being developed by the Health Information Quality Authority (HIQA) and will be published later this year, will be helpful in this regard. Further safeguards are provided of course through the EU AI Act.
