The World Health Organisation (WHO) published “Artificial intelligence-related health research Ethics review and oversights” in January 2024. It made 40 recommendations for the implementation of AI in healthcare broadly, and healthcare research. Australia enacted the Office of AI, with no health mandate, which will not begin until April 2027. In the meantime, AI is being implemented.
For governments, the WHO recommended investment in public or not-for-profit AI infrastructure, enact laws and regulations that uphold human rights standards and establish clear legal liability for AI harms. Establish regulatory bodies for assessing AI applications in healthcare, including registration requirements, audits and pre-certification programs. Specifically, for governments to create ovesnight mechanisms that are independent of commercial interests.
For developers and tech companies, they should engage a diverse range of stakeholders, not just data scientists and engineers but healthcare professionals, patients and civil society. Tools should be designed for specific purposes not just implement general purpose tools not fit for purpose. Training data should be transparent with the models having specific limitations. AI must be tested in specific clinical contexts before deployment.
For healthcare providers, human oversight must be maintained. Ultimate responsibility for clinical decisions should be made by a human. Information consent should be obtained from patients if AI is used in their care in any capacity. AI should ensure equitable access to care and not exacerbate existing health inequities.
The five key themes across all domains were safety and risk, privacy and data, transparency and governance, clinical quality and efficacy, equity and bias.
So where does Australia land against these recommendations?
WHO said governments must establish regulatory bodies for healthcare AI. Australia has no dedicated healthcare AI regulatory body. The Office of AI announced in July 2026 will not be online until April 2027 and to date, no health mandate has been announced.
WHO said data must only be used where there is an appropriate legal basis. In Australia, My Health Record is currently uploading pathology and imaging files to the portal with medications to follow shortly. Patients have not been fully informed of the risk to their personal health data and are opted in.
WHO said humans must maintain oversight over clinical decisions. Currently AI scribes are deployed in 40% of general practices without TGA regulation, recording verbatim, confidential patient doctor conversations and transcribing them, with every detail forming part of the model.
WHO said independent oversight must be in place. In Australia 70% of consultations respondents said a national oversight body was needed but as yet has not been created for healthcare.
It seems we all know the what, or this could just be me, but the how is an afterthought. AI has shot first and now we are left asking the questions.
The Australian Government has done nothing concrete to address valid concerns raised by patients surrounding the implementation of AI into healthcare. Technologies like AI Scribes are already implemented in 40% of general practices, without oversight, or policy to oversee.
The Office of AI will not even come into effect until April 2027, yet the market is forging ahead without governance. By the time the Government determines policy, all of Australians’ healthcare data will be in some form of a model, either public models or private in-house models not available for scrutiny.
This affects every domain of healthcare, data sovereignty, clinical safety, billing integrity and service distribution. Everything.
Without governance, these systems are currently, in real time, deciding your future before we as a community have decided what we want that to look like. We are being told what is happening, not determining what should happen.
We are not being governed. We are being instructed.