TU Delft becomes WHO Collaborating Centre on AI healthcare governance

Cooperation between TU Delft Digital Ethics Centre (The Netherlands) and WHO becomes official with accreditation on 6 March

Why does AI in healthcare often does not work – and how do we make it work?

The TU Delft Digital Ethics Centre will advise the World Health Organization (WHO) on ethical aspects and laws and regulations surrounding AI in healthcare. On 6 March, the Delft research centre will receive accreditation: after which it will officially be a WHO Collaboration Centre in the field of Ethics and Governance of AI in Healthcare. 

Healthcare is under tremendous pressure worldwide, and the deployment of AI in healthcare offers huge opportunities. But the integration and implementation of AI in healthcare is not without controversy and difficulties. For instance, Dutch research has shown only two per cent of all AI innovations worldwide are actually used. Innovations often do not connect well with practice, healthcare staff do not embrace them, ethical dilemmas arise or AI still contains biases that can cause discrimination. 

Dr. Alain Labrique, Director, Department of Digital Health and Innovation at the World Health Organization (WHO): ‘AI has the transformative power to reshape healthcare and empower individuals on their health journeys. The technical and academic partnership with the Digital Ethics Centre at TU Delft is crucial in ensuring that the benefits of AI reach everyone globally through ethical governance, equitable access, and collaborative action.’

When using AI in healthcare, it is extremely important to uphold both ethical principles and healthcare norms and values. International guidelines have been drawn up for this, but they have yet to be translated into practice. That is where the TU Delft Digital Ethics Centre is now going to help.

Michel van Genderen, internist-intensivist and associate professor at Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam (The Netherlands):

‘AI can only improve healthcare if we have a good ethical foundation. We need to get that basis right. Thanks to the special cooperation between WHO, TU Delft and Erasmus MC, as well as the software company SAS, we can apply AI responsibly and transparently in the clinic. 
One example is an ongoing project within Erasmus MC: where AI helps determine when a patient can be safely discharged after oncological surgery. If we meet all preconditions, this can not only ensure safer patient discharges, but they can also go home four days earlier on average and there is a halving of readmissions.’

The TU Delft Digital Ethics Centre is the result of almost two decades of research into digital ethics and responsible innovation, it is one of the world’s frontrunners in this field. Stefan Buijsman, Associate Professor Responsible AI: ‘Together with the WHO, we have already drawn up frameworks for responsible use of AI and Generative AI in healthcare. Now they are approaching us to make this concrete. How will it work in practice? At the WHO, it was thought: if there are answers to be found anywhere, it is in Delft. TU Delft, and in particular professor Jeroen van den Hoven, has been working with the WHO on this topic for several years. Now we are getting official recognition for that through this accreditation.’ 

TU Delft Digital Ethics Centre is collaborating with Erasmus MC and software company SAS in the AI for Health ethics lab (REAiHL). Pilot projects devised in Delft can be tested in practice in The Netherlands’ largest medical centre in Rotterdam. Buijsman: ‘It is important that we can see whether what we come up with also works in the day-to-day practice of the hospital. We can work out the ethical frameworks and come up with technological solutions to match, in Erasmus MC they can validate them and identify needs from practice.’ The AI ethics lab was created on the initiative of Erasmus MC internist-intensivist Michel van Genderen. The aim is to develop a generalist framework for how AI can be applied hospital-wide safely and ethically. 

REAiHL
The Responsible and Ethical AI in Healthcare Lab (REAiHL) is a collaboration between Erasmus MC, TU Delft and software company SAS and is based at Erasmus MC’s DataHub. Here, scientists, doctors and data scientists work together on guidelines for developing and implementing ethically sound and clinically relevant AI in healthcare. REAiHL is an ICAI lab (Innovation Centre for Artificial Intelligence); a research collaboration between industrial, government or non-profit partners and knowledge institutes.