The WHO calls on members to address these risks and ensure transparency, verifiability, and explainability to build trust.

Dr. Hans Kluge warns that clear strategies, data privacy, legal guardrails, and AI literacy are needed to prevent widening health disparities, insisting patient-centered decision-making stays central.

Experts note lack of standards is already making health workers hesitant to adopt AI, with emphasis on safety, fairness, and real-world effectiveness before patient use.

The WHO Europe report shows many European countries rapidly adopting AI in healthcare but lacking robust legal and ethical safeguards for patients and clinicians.

Public concerns center on patient safety, fair access to care, and digital privacy, with biased or incomplete data risking missed diagnoses and unequal care.

It also stresses pathways for recourse after AI-related harm to maintain trust and safeguard patient safety.

A core concern is AI relying on large datasets that may be faulty or biased, risking misdiagnoses, with unclear accountability for AI-driven errors.

Only four countries (8%) have a dedicated national AI health strategy, with seven more in development, based on responses from most member states.

The report calls for clear standards to boost clinicians’ confidence in AI tools and provide patients recourse if issues arise, aiming to prevent safety and privacy gaps and inequality.

Regulators are urged to establish accountability frameworks for AI decisions in clinical settings to foster trust and safe use.

Key risks include biased outputs, automation bias, erosion of clinician skills, reduced clinician-patient interaction, and inequitable outcomes for marginalized groups.

Primary motivations for AI in health are improving patient care, reducing workforce pressures, and increasing efficiency.