Privacy, transparency, and consent are essential to patient trust — and clinical pharmacists must not lose sight of these principles as AI is integrated into care and health-system operations, say presenters at a session of the upcoming ASHP Pharmacy Futures 2026 meeting in St. Louis, Missouri.
Managing Privacy, Consent, and Patient Data in AI-Enabled Systems will examine the ethical quandaries surrounding AI in healthcare and provide a framework for safeguarding patients’ personal information.
“We must give patients the information they need to make informed decisions about their care. AI doesn’t change that,” said speaker Gabriele Quaranta, pharmacy manager at UVA Health.
Quaranta and co-presenter Brian Spoelhof, UVA Health’s director of pharmacy medication management and systems, highlighted the core themes they plan to explore.
AI is not a monolith
The term “AI” is used indiscriminately to describe a wide range of applications, but AI-enabled systems access and analyze patient health data in a spectrum of ways, each with different risks and ethical implications, the pair said.
- Because AI is biased toward the information it is trained on, it may not represent the patients being treated and inadvertently reinforce health disparities. There’s also the “black box dilemma,” where users cannot be entirely sure how AI is coming to its conclusions.
- Disclosing personal health data often doesn’t feel risky or intrusive for patients — until something goes wrong.
- “How do we ensure that patients are aware of the technologies that we’re using? And how do we as pharmacists become aware of these risks and use that awareness to elevate our practice?” said Quaranta.
Comfort doesn’t equal consent
AI is prevalent in everyday life, and patients are becoming more comfortable with its use in healthcare.
- However, healthcare professionals must not assume patients understand how AI works or how it affects care delivery, the presenters said.
- Meaningful informed consent in the AI era requires transparency, patient understanding, and appropriate choice.
- “Patients may be desensitized to the risk of AI when it’s widely accessible. We still have the obligation to make sure patients understand the risks and the benefits,” said Spoelhof. “In some ways, I would say [patients’ comfort level with AI] even raises the stakes for us.”
A patient-centered framework
With a broad ethical framework and clear AI governance structure, health systems can adapt their patient privacy and consent practices, regardless of how the technology is used in the future, the presenters said.
- Using several example scenarios, Spoelhof and Quaranta will engage Pharmacy Futures attendees in a discussion about the ethical use of AI and when informed consent is required.
- Among the questions they provided that can help pressure-test AI standards and policies: How will this technology use patient data? What are the benefits and risks to the patient? Who is ultimately responsible for AI-assisted decision-making? Does the patient need to be informed of and consent to this use of AI? If yes, at what point in their care?
- “There are core ethical principles that we all believe in and that we can keep coming back to as AI evolves,” Spoelhof said.
Where pharmacy can lead
Clinical pharmacists are well-positioned to lead AI decision-making and implementation. As frontline providers, they can also take the initiative with patient communication.
- AI has high potential to optimize medication therapy and streamline pharmacy operations. Clinical pharmacist feedback is essential to ensure that AI supports these goals.
- Pharmacy professionals don’t need to become AI experts, but they must cultivate a fundamental understanding of how it is being used in their practice and its implications for patient care.
- Said Quaranta: “Healthcare providers already have to be able to communicate medical care in a way that patients can understand. AI is adding another layer of complexity, because now we have to explain that to patients as well.”
This session is part of the Joseph A. Oddis Ethics Colloquium, a series of case-based ethics workshops sponsored by the ASHP Foundation.
