We recognise the Association of Surgeons in South Africa strong interest in advancing AI in healthcare and the important work you are doing in this space. In line with these efforts, we would like to share a new White Paper focusing on steps that could be taken to enable clinicians to embrace AI technologies, whilst also protecting themselves from risk.
The attached paper is the result of a collaboration between the MPS Foundation, the Centre for Assuring Autonomy at the University of York and the Improvement Academy hosted at the Bradford Institute for Health Research.

The paper builds on results from the Shared CAIRE (Shared Care AI Role Evaluation) research project which examined the impact of different AI decision-support tools on clinicians – ranging from tools which simply provide information, through to those which communicate directly with patients, and those which make direct recommendations to clinicians.
The study offers important insights, particularly in relation to the implementation of AI in the context of clinical decision-making which in turn informed the seven key recommendations in the White Paper.

The Medical Protection Society (MPS) established the MPS Foundation in 2022 in order to support exciting research of this nature, and we are proud that this research project was included as part of the first annual grant programme. The Foundation funds a wide range of research across all regions where we have members. Although this particular research project was conducted within the UK, and some recommendations relate to UK legislation, we believe the findings can be globally applicable.

We hope this paper is a helpful contribution to the debate around how AI can be integrated into clinical practice healthcare in a way that is usable, useful, and safe – both for patients and clinicians.

We are organising an online symposium to explore these and other issues in this White Paper. We will write to you again shortly to provide details, and we would be delighted if you and your colleagues were able to attend.