Designing for Care, Not Just Function: Lessons From a Non-Clinical Artificial Intelligence Innovation in...

Area of Science:

• Healthcare technology
• Artificial intelligence in medicine
• Human-computer interaction

Background:

• Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly integrated into healthcare, raising questions about its impact on person-centred fundamental care.
• Existing frameworks may not adequately address the complexities of AI's role in shaping patient care experiences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how artificial intelligence (AI) influences the definition, enactment, and preservation of person-centred fundamental care.
• To develop a framework that positions care as a critical design constraint in AI development for healthcare.

Main Methods:

• A theoretically informed case analysis was employed, using a conversational AI companion for breast cancer patients as an empirical case.
• The Fundamentals of Care Framework served as a normative anchor for developing a person-centred AI-by-design framework.

Main Results:

• A person-centred AI-by-design framework was developed, with three domains: design, evaluation, and sustainment.
• The framework emphasizes care as a governing condition that shapes technological development, focusing on lived experience and relational dimensions.
• Risks of AI scale, including standardization and erosion of relational care, were identified.

Conclusions:

• AI is an active participant in redefining care, not a neutral tool.
• Unexamined AI risks narrowing care to measurable outcomes, potentially eroding person-centred fundamental care.
• Repositioning care as a design constraint is essential for technology-mediated healthcare.