Is There a Right for the Human Touch? AI and the Future of the Physician-Patient Relationship

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11220%2F25%3A10508688" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11220/25:10508688 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=ueqRV_211N" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=ueqRV_211N</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Is There a Right for the Human Touch? AI and the Future of the Physician-Patient Relationship

Original language description

This paper explores the multifaceted impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the physician-patient relationship, which remains a normative and functional cornerstone of healthcare systems. While current medical AI systems are primarily used for diagnostic support, administrative tasks, and predictive modelling, their increasing autonomy and integration raise urgent legal, ethical, and practical questions. The paper analyses how AI may affect core elements of this relationship, including informed consent, patient dignity, confidentiality, equity, and patient-centric care, drawing on relevant norms of international law and the four-principle framework of biomedical ethics (beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and autonomy).The study categorises concrete AI use cases in medicine (from diagnostic accuracy enhancement and clinical decision support to robotic care, personalised virtual assistants, or administrative automation) and evaluates their potential to either erode or enrich human interaction in healthcare. It argues that AI can help address long-standing structural deficits such as physician time constraints and system fragmentation, thereby enabling deeper communication, shared decision-making, and a potential revalorisation of generalist medical practice. However, these developments carry risks related to algorithmic bias, data privacy, technocratic paternalism, and professional deskilling, which require a thoughtful approach by all relevant stakeholders. Ultimately, this paper calls for an intentional integration of AI that strengthens human agency on both sides of the therapeutic alliance. In this way, the growing technical sophistication of medicine can be matched not by dehumanisation, but rather by a deepening of presence, empathy, and trust.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_SC - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the SCOPUS database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50501 - Law

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Czech Yearbook of Public and Private International Law

ISSN

1805-0565

e-ISSN

1805-0999

Volume of the periodical

16

Issue of the periodical within the volume

2025

Country of publishing house

CZ - CZECH REPUBLIC

Number of pages

18

Pages from-to

338-355

UT code for WoS article

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EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-105035594382