Regulating AI in Digital Mental Health Forum - Asia

The use of AI-enabled technologies for supporting mental health offers great promise, such as by potentially improving treatment outcomes as well as crisis and addiction support, suicide prevention, and building mental resilience and wellbeing. Regulating the safe use of AI in mental health is an urgent priority and calls for many actions including robust clinical and data governance frameworks. When working with AI-enabled technologies in mental health spaces it is crucial that risks and harms are minimized to avoid potentially life-altering and life-threatening outcomes.

 In this second edition of the Forum series, (first edition occurred in London in March 2024) we will address key questions related to safety and regulation of AI in mental health with specific considerations to Asian cultural perspectives. For example, to what extent are AI-enabled technologies embracing clinical governance and what do ‘good practices’ and ‘gold standards’ currently look like in this highly sensitive area? What are the growing efforts to digitize public mental health services using AI-enabled technologies? Are existing regulatory instruments and frameworks swift enough, at least in some capacity, to improve protections for vulnerable citizens? This exploratory Forum also provides an inter-jurisdictional examination of AI regulation and ethical considerations, including regional perspectives. 

The primary aim of this Forum is to share global lessons on approaches to safety, quality and improved protection of vulnerable citizens when working with AI-enabled technologies specifically in mental health spaces. Furthermore, novel AI trends in rapid development will also be explored during the day for which very little attention and regulatory thought has been given, including the examination of the concepts of Generative AI, ‘digital twins’ and more, which raises ethical considerations and potentially wide-ranging mental health implications.

This Forum is an activity of the IEEE Healthcare and Life Science Global Practice and the IEEE Ethical Assurance of Data-Driven Technologies for Mental Healthcare Program. 

SUPPORT THIS IMPORTANT FORUM

We are seeking funders to help support the Forum participation and activities. If you are interested in learning more, please write to Maria Palombini, m.palombini@ieee.org.