In brief: Ukraine’s Health Ministry is drafting legislation to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine, Health Minister Viktor Liashko said on Friday, Nov. 13, citing a ministry survey which shows that 80.5% of medical workers already use the technology. The bill would set rules for developing and using medical AI systems, as well as for classifying them by risk level. Safety, transparency and accountability will be required from both providers and users, Liashko said, adding that the absence of comprehensive regulation creates uncertainty. Although no precise date has been provided, the draft will soon be put to public discussion.
Ukraine’s Health Ministry is drafting comprehensive legislation to regulate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) intelligence, as the technology becomes embedded across a growing number of sectors, from hospitals to the battlefield.
The bill’s key provisions had already been discussed, Health Minister Viktor Liashko said in a statement on Friday, Nov. 13, noting that the ministry would soon present the draft for public discussion. However, he did not provide a precise date or a timeline.
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“We must create opportunities for the wider use of innovative solutions in Ukrainian medicine while protecting patients’ rights and safety,” Liashko said.
New rules needed
Because Ukraine currently lacks comprehensive legislative regulation of the use of AI systems in the medical field, developers and medical institutions face uncertainty, making it harder to scale promising solutions, Liashko said.
Under the ministry’s proposal, the bill would set clear rules for developing and using medical AI systems, classify them by risk level and require both providers and users to meet standards of safety, transparency and accountability.
“Patients’ medical data must be protected, and AI must be used under proper supervision by medical professionals,” Liashko said.
Most doctors already use AI
A Health Ministry survey, carried out under WINWIN 2030, Ukraine’s digital development strategy, and published in late August, found that found that 80.5% of the more than 7,000 doctors, nurses, pharmacists and heads of medical institutions who took part already use AI tools – 21.6% regularly and 58.9% occasionally.
Nearly two-thirds of the medical workers, or 65.7%, said they support the use of AI in health care, with backing strongest in the private sector.
Most of the medics would like to use AI to help them find clinical guidelines and protocols (57.4%) and regulatory documents (54.1%), while about a third reported desires to use it for differential diagnosis or for planning their work, and 31% for drafting medical records.
Respondents also said they want AI tools to draw on verified official sources and to show what their recommendations are based on. They named possible system errors as the biggest risk.
Ukraine also increasingly relies on AI-supported ground robotic systems and unmanned vehicles to carry out some of the most dangerous frontline missions in place of soldiers.
Among the more than 300 patients surveyed, 67.5% supported the use of AI in medicine. Most said they want it to explain diagnoses and test results in plain language, as well as to help them find a doctor – not to replace one.
The majority said they would accept a doctor using AI as a supporting tool, as long as the doctor is the one making a final decision.
The survey also covered 39 businesses and organizations, including software developers, medical device makers and pharmaceutical companies.
From hospitals to the frontline
The announcement comes as Ukraine increasingly relies on AI across several sectors, most visibly on the battlefield.
Some of the riskiest frontline work is being shifted from military personnel to remotely operated, AI-supported ground robots (GRCs).
According to the Ministry of Defense in June, the Ukrainian military has already carried out more than 50,000 logistics and evacuation missions using GRCs since the start of the year.
On Oct. 5, Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said robotic machine-gun turrets using AI and machine vision had begun intercepting jet-powered drones, including Russia’s Geran-5.
Ukraine’s government, led by Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi, has approved an experimental project on Oct. 16, in which drones would be used to transport medical supplies, blood samples and donor organs between hospitals.
The first site, the Health Ministry’s Heart Institute in Kyiv, already operates three specialized drones that can fly up to 700 kilometers (435 miles) and land at hospitals.
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