Deputy Minister of Health Issues a Decision to Adopt the Practical Guide for Using Linguistic Artificial Intelligence Tools in Healthcare Practice
The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health, Sheikh Dr. Salman Khalifa Al-Sabah, issued an administrative order on Tuesday approving and publishing the practical guide for the use of linguistic artificial intelligence tools and large language models in clinical practice.
In a press statement, the Ministry of Health said the decision serves as a guidance framework for staff in health facilities under the ministry, aiming to balance the benefits of these technologies with the protection of patient privacy, practice safety, and professional responsibility.
It added that the decision aims to enable the safe and responsible use of AI tools, emphasizing that their outputs remain supportive and non-definitive, and do not replace professional judgment or medical responsibility. They must not be considered a final reference, an approved clinical recommendation, or a substitute for a physician’s or healthcare specialist’s assessment.
The Ministry clarified that the decision stresses the protection of patient data confidentiality and health information, prohibiting the input, upload, or copying of identifiable or sensitive data—including patient names, civil ID numbers, medical file numbers, images, audio recordings, laboratory results, radiology reports, discharge summaries, and screenshots—into any linguistic tool, cloud service, or platform not officially approved by the relevant authorities within the ministry.
It affirmed that linguistic AI tools or associated cloud services may not be used with actual patient data, or with confidential or operational data belonging to the ministry, unless officially approved in accordance with data protection, information security, cloud computing, patient confidentiality, and applicable technical and legal controls in the State of Kuwait. The decision prohibits relying on the outputs of these tools as the sole basis for diagnosis, treatment, prescription, dosage calculation, test interpretation, admission, discharge, referral, triage, or predicting disease severity. However, their use as a tool can assist in learning, organizing thinking, exploring possibilities, and summarizing information, provided that outputs and their sources are rigorously verified and reviewed by the responsible specialist before clinical or professional use.
It noted that the decision classifies usage according to risk level into three tiers. The first, low-risk usage, includes general drafting, translation, summarization, and preparation of non-confidential educational or administrative materials, subject to human review. The second, medium-risk usage, involves summarizing guidelines, organizing differential diagnoses, and reviewing general pharmaceutical information, with source verification.
The ministry added that the third tier comprises high-risk uses, where reliance on AI for decision-making is prohibited. These include final diagnosis, treatment selection, prescription or dosage determination, clinical triage, and decisions concerning specific patients.
It stated that the decision prohibits health facilities, departments, and sections from launching, using, or promoting linguistic tools directed at patients or the public to provide health advice, treatment information, or triage or clinical guidance services in the name of the ministry or any of its facilities, unless a formal evaluation and approval mechanism is established that considers clinical, legal, and technical aspects, information security, data privacy, patient safety, and tool performance monitoring.
She noted that the decision authorized the Ministry, when necessary, to form a technical team or committee to evaluate the proposed artificial intelligence tools and models intended for official use or their integration with the Ministry’s systems. The evaluation must take into account the level of risk, the type of data, privacy, cybersecurity, performance quality, the verifiability of outputs, their suitability for the local context, and the mechanisms for monitoring and handling errors and incidents.
She added that the decision included provisions for documentation and disclosure, emphasizing that no text generated or modified by AI tools may be copied into medical records or official reports without being read, reviewed, corrected, and approved by the responsible specialist.
The Ministry stated that the decision mandates the dissemination of awareness and training materials for staff on the safe and responsible use of these tools, alongside making available public awareness materials that clarify the limitations of AI in health-related topics, its potential to produce inaccurate, incomplete, or incorrect information, and that it does not replace consultation with a physician or health specialist or reference to approved medical sources.
It clarified that the decision obliged health facilities to report any incident, error, or suspected breach of patient privacy or unsafe use of linguistic AI tools, including the unauthorized entry of patient or confidential data into unapproved tools, or the use of unverified outputs that could affect patient safety or the quality of care.
