AI Policy: Should Doctors Upend Privacy Protections to Use Artificial Intelligence When Handling Patient Data?
Australian Financial Review
SKIPPED
Details
- Date Published
- 13 Aug 2025
- Priority Score
- 4
- Australian
- Yes
- Created
- 14 Aug 2025, 02:50 pm
Description
The Productivity Commission is proposing a path whereby organisations would no longer have to meet the prescribed requirements of the Privacy Act.
Summary
The article examines proposals by Australia's Productivity Commission to relax privacy laws to facilitate the use of AI in medical practices. This raises significant ethical and safety concerns, particularly regarding patient data security and the balance between efficiency and privacy. As AI scribing technologies become more common in general practices, this shift could have implications for both patient care and the integrity of personal health information. The article is relevant to discussions on AI governance and policy in Australia, emphasizing the tension between technological innovation and the protection of individual rights.
Body
PoliticsFederalPrivacyPrint articleAug 14, 2025 – 10.59amSaveLog inorSubscribeto save articleShareCopy linkCopiedEmailLinkedInTwitterFacebookCopy linkCopiedShare via...Gift this articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber?LoginAcross Australia, GPs are starting to use artificial intelligence to record and transcribe appointments, schedule follow-up appointments, request pathology tests and issue prescriptions. AI “scribes” are becoming increasingly common in medical practices, and Australian companies are at the forefront of the medical scribe industry.This is a good example of aproductivity-enhancing technology– it enables GPs to save time (up to five minutes or more per consult, according to early research) and to concentrate on listening to and connecting with patients.Loading...Carly Kindis Australian Privacy Commissioner.SaveLog inorSubscribeto save articleShareCopy linkCopiedEmailLinkedInTwitterFacebookCopy linkCopiedShare via...Gift this articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber?LoginLicense articleFollow the topics, people and companies that matter to you.Find out moreRead MorePrivacyOpinionAIProductivity summitHealthcareGPsFetching latest articlesThe 25 new watches you need to know nowLuke Benedictus and Bani McSpeddenWhat OpenAI’s Sam Altman suggests you do to keep your jobThis Australian watch reseller is making its move on London and NYCWhy this boss negotiated a 25pc pay rise for her staffPatrick DurkinBeing away from her baby felt wrong. So this exec invented a solutionPublic and private sectors both spy on staff, but with one differenceThe ‘Apple Isle’ may need a rebrand thanks to Tassie’s vineyard boomMax AllenA breezy Lee Mathews dress and a butterfly chair to relax inKevin McCloud and Tim Ross’s new podcast is for serious design nerdsThe Pratts v Alex Waislitz: a battle of ‘epic’ proportionsPrimrose Riordan and Max MasonWiseTech faces competition concerns after $3.2b acquisition of e2open‘Factually incorrect’: fund manager Elanor fires back at Lederer