Ethics are key to our work in the Integrated Care System (ICS). They help us make good choices, work well with others, and serve the public. By following strong ethical rules, we make sure our actions help the whole community.
The Importance of Trust
Trust is key to our work and how we create value for the public. As an Integrated Care System (ICS), we manage public money, which is a big responsibility. Our patients and residents trust us to use these funds wisely and efficiently. We don't take this trust for granted – we work hard to earn and keep it.
To build and maintain trust, we will focus on being open and fair in everything we do. We explain our processes clearly so that people can understand and review our decisions. This openness will show we're accountable and will helps us improve by getting feedback from others.
By consistently showing these values in our daily work, we strengthen public trust in our ability to manage resources well and make decisions that truly benefit the community.
Ethical Service Design
When we design services ethically, we focus on building useful, usable technology while also thinking about the wider effects of doing so. We start by asking these questions:
- How might our digital service or tool harm individuals?
- How might it harm communities?
- How might it harm the environment?
We often talk about the benefits of digital approaches, but we must also think about possible unintended consequences of building or implementing them.
Ethical Data Sharing
People are starting to understand how valuable their data is. There has been a lot of news about data breaches and companies making money from personal data. This has made people wary about sharing their data. They’re not sure if their information is being shared for good reasons. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) gives people some rights over their data, but it doesn't cover everything. We can build trust by being open about how we share data and letting people see what we're sharing, and with who.
Ethical AI Practices
As we collect more data, companies are using artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to make decisions. They want to improve their results, but some AI systems cause unexpected problems due to poor planning and biased data.
As people notice unfair outcomes, researchers and data scientists are creating new guidelines to address AI ethics concerns. AI ethics topics include:
- Data responsibility and privacy: Should we use the data we have to ask our questions? Is there a way to get similar results without raising privacy concerns?
- Inclusivity: Does our data come from only one group of people? If so, how do we acknowledge this bias in our results? How do we avoid training AI on biased data?
- Explainability: We should use AI models that we can explain. This means understanding how the AI reaches its conclusions. Some AI methods can be powerful but hard to explain, which can lead to misleading results.
- Robustness: This relates to data quality and the assumptions in our AI models. We should test our models thoroughly to ensure they are reliable.
- Environmental impact: AI, especially large language models, uses a lot of energy. We need to consider the environmental impact when deciding whether to use AI.
- Moral responsibility: As an ICS, we will publish our standards for using AI. This shows our community that we'll use AI responsibly. We'll regularly check that we're following these standards through a clear governance process.