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Exploring AI Ethics in Healthcare: An irecs Workshop at KIT
March 2025
On 25 March 2025, the irecs team at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) held an in-person workshop at the Institute of Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS). Early-career researchers and PhD students convened to explore the ethics of emerging technologies and research ethics, using AI in healthcare as a central case study.
The session began with a brief overview of the irecs project and a short introduction round from the participants. Subsequently, participants were given the opportunity to share their knowledge about AI, its benefits, challenges, and applications in healthcare. The participants exhibited a remarkable degree of expertise, thereby facilitating a substantial and multifaceted further enhanced by relevant irecs learning materials.
Following this open discussion, the participants were divided into two groups for an interactive session featuring a role-playing exercise. Each group assumed distinct roles to address the ethical dilemmas faced by a fictional hospital implementing a new AI-based health tool. Participants could choose to play one of the following roles: healthcare professional (physician), representative of the company offering the AI-based tool, patient rights advocate, medical ethicist, representative of human resources of the hospital, or representative of a health insurance company.
In the spirit of a collaborative, constructive and passionate dialogue, the groups engaged in a deliberative process to formulate a consensus-driven recommendation to the hospital’s executive board. They subsequently presented their collective findings to one another, allowing time for follow-up questions, comments, observations and a comprehensive reflection on the role-playing exercise itself.
The training session concluded with a detailed exploration of the irecs training materials, including an overview of the website and its structure for further learning opportunities. Participants gained insights into resources for exploring technologies beyond the workshop's scope and learned how to effectively integrate these materials into their professional activities, whether interacting with the public, students, or colleagues outside their institution.
If you are interested in the freely accessible irecs learning materials, we encourage you to explore the ENERI classroom. If you are interested in conducting a training yourself on irecs core technologies, visit the irecs trainer guide, available at the Embassy of Good Science.
Author:
Claudia Brändle and Maria Maia, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)