Ethical Considerations for AI Use in Medication Access

In this Pharmaceutical Executive video interview, Kimberley Chiang, vice president of biopharma commercial solutions at CoverMyMeds, discusses "The 2025 Medication Access Report." She highlights gaps in data-sharing and cross-functional collaboration as major bottlenecks that cause delays, rework, and increased patient burden. Chiang shares that only 3% of patients utilize support programs due to a lack of awareness. A large majority of the report's respondents plan to expand funding for patient support programs within the next 5 years due to large number of new therapies expected to come to market.

Pharmaceutical Executive: With the rapid advancement of AI, what are the ethical considerations surrounding its use in medication access, and how can the industry ensure that these technologies are used responsibly and equitably?
Kimberley Chiang: Ethical considerations with the use of any technology tool that is going to replace human decision making is something that we are quite focused on as an organization. We believe in responsibility and that AI should only be a complementary tool until we are very confident in the fair and unbiased nature of the AI and the diverse data sets that it’s pulling from.

For today and the near future, we believe the best position for AI is where technology enhances clinical support. The human component of care continues to be the most important element of making sure that the right clinical decisions are made for patients. We want to make sure that AI is used to support, not replace. The human touch in healthcare should persist in the most relevant clinical support services going forward.

We also believe in the protection of private information. Building those diverse data sets while maintaining patient privacy is a critical element to consider as an industry. While thinking about patient privacy, we also must think about transparency in decision making. A patient should know how a decision was made relative to their care. They should fully understand and be able to ask questions about how the process solicited this type of support for them.

The ability to protect privacy and maintain transparency in the decision-making process for patients is a critical factor that the industry needs to think about.