As KATY is an EU-funded cancer research project focusing on the development of AI-based technologies for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of lung cancer, University of Vienna utilized this opportunity to conduct a round-table talk titled, ´AI Act Implementation in the Health Sector Challenges and Opportunities´ on the legal, ethical, and societal aspects of the AI technologies in medical sector, and the impact, reception and regulatory aspects of the recently enacted EU AI Act (2024), the world's first AI-specific legislation governing the design, development and use of AI technologies.
The meeting was moderated by Katarzyna Barud, the deputy head of KATY´s legal and ethics team from Work Package 7. Apart from the clinical and technical experts from within the KATY consortium, the roundtable was attended by a distinguished panel of external experts from law, human rights, AI, and healthcare, who are involved in medical research projects similar to KATY. These experts include:
- Dr. Alexander Kriebitz, an ethics and political scientist from Technical University Munich who represented MELISSA project,
- Priv.-Doz. Dr. med. Keno Bressem and Dr. Felix Busch from Technical University Munich, presenting COMFORT project,
- Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Petra Ritter, Director for Brain Simulation Section at Berlin Institute of Health, neuroscientist and medical doctor from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, who represented TEF-Health,
- Dr. David Schneeberger, Researcher and Consultant at the Research Institute – Digital Human Rights Center, representing dAIbetes,
- Alexandra Marginean, a prae-doc from University of Vienna, who spoke on behalf of Phase IV AI,
- Olga Startseva, a research associate from University of Vienna, who represented BETTER4U,
- Syed Shah, a doctorate candidate and research associate from University of Vienna, part of KATY´s legal team.
The round table provided a timely opportunity to share expert insights on the compliance aspects in the light of the AI Act, particularly in the context of ongoing EU-funded health projects and their outcomes within the medical sector. The discussion witnessed an active and multi-faceted dialogue among the speakers and KATY´s clinical and technical experts on the various project-informed AI-specific implementation challenges (most notably, data protection, AI governance, use of synthetic data, transparent AI, XAI, and AI accountability) and how they situate within the broader context of contemporary medical practices.
The KATY project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101017453. For more information on KATY, click here.
