Fall 2022 Data Science Seminar Series: Sophia Fantus: The Ethics of Integrating Medical AI into Research, Practice, and Education

Speaker: Sophia Fantus, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, School of Social work at University of Texas Arlington

Faculty Host: Lu Tang, COMM

Abstract: Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) have transformed healthcare research and practice. The development of AI/ML in health has aimed to facilitate earlier and more accurate medical diagnoses, novel treatment and long-term care interventions, and ease workflow and administrative tasks. In research, advances in AI/ML have been used to examine genetics and neuroimaging using large datasets with the intention to treat degenerative illness, such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and Parkinson’s diseases. Yet, along with the expansion of AI/ML, there have been a wave of ethical and legal stipulations that have caused obstacles in how to justify AI/ML research and practice. Issues related to autonomy, bias, fairness, privacy and confidentiality, and trust have dominated theoretical scholarship. Yet, there is a gap in how these higher-level ethical principles and values may ultimately influence education, practice, and scholarship. This talk will describe these ethical considerations and explore ways which mitigate these risks and produce ethically informed medical AI/ML for patients, providers, and researchers.

Biography: Dr. Sophia Fantus is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Arlington. She has a B.A.in Religion and Bioethics from the University of Toronto, an MSW from New York University, and a PhD in Social Work and Bioethics from the University of Toronto. She is also a certified healthcare ethics consultant, having completed a two-year clinical ethics fellowship with Baylor College of Medicine’s Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy. Dr. Fantus’ research interests focus on the integration of social work and bioethics. Her primary work is on moral distress of healthcare social workers and chaplains and is currently working on projects examining ethical decision-making and moral distress among informal family caregivers for persons living with Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. She also has interest in the ethics of medical AI/ML and how it connects to ethical practice and wellbeing among patients and providers.

Link to PDF Version

You can also click this link to join the seminar

For more information about TAMIDS Seminar Series, please contact Ms. Jennifer South at jsouth@tamu.edu