International Experience in Legal Regulation of the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare in BRICS Countries

The exceptionally multifaceted challenges of developing the use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence (hereinafter referred to as AI) in healthcare in the current context can be largely characterized from a legal perspective, both within the context of national, supranational, and international regulation. Overall, the active expansion of technology use in medicine increases the importance of formulating strategic priorities in the area of ​​state regulation of AI use in healthcare, but at the same time raises the question of its limits. In this regard, an analysis of the specifics of the development of AI practices in healthcare in the BRICS countries, with which Russia is actively developing international cooperation in various areas, including this one, is of undeniable research interest. In this study, the authors focused on the analysis of digital healthcare development practices in the BRICS core countries (Brazil, India, China, and South Africa), which are based on a longer-standing tradition of cooperation and share certain similarities in the problems addressed in this area. The importance of addressing this topic stems not only from the relative lack of available research on the topic, but also from the dynamics of technological development and political and legal cooperation, as well as from the similarities between the problems being addressed in this context, both in our country and in other BRICS countries. Finding answers to these problems is crucial in the development of relevant international integration. Clearly, the relevant issues are complex – not only legal and technical, but also social, economic, and ethical in nature. This underscores the importance of synthesizing various national approaches and incorporating positive international experience. The purpose of this study is to analyze the key aspects and trends in the development of legal regulation of the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare in BRICS countries, as well as the potential for its implementation in Russia. Using general scientific methods such as comparative analysis, a systems approach, analytical and instrumental methods of structural-logical schematization, sociological, formal-legal, and comparative-legal methods, as well as a program-oriented approach, the authors sought to analyze relevant international practices through the lens of reflecting a certain balance between two vectors of public policy: supporting innovative development (stimulating the implementation of technologies), on the one hand, and ensuring security and guarantees for the realization of citizens' rights (risk protection), on the other. Based on the analyzed international experience, the authors put forward the following scientific hypothesis: in the context of implementing Russian public policy in the field of the creation and use of medical AI, it is significant to consider the experience of BRICS countries, whose healthcare is largely developing along the lines of "catch-up modernization" against a backdrop of significant structural imbalances in the regional dimension, difficulties in ensuring technological sovereignty, and a heterogeneously formed regulatory framework. An analysis of relevant international practices demonstrates the need to use, in the context of digitalization of healthcare, methods, principles, and standards that are consistent with (compatible with) the goals of a safe, humane, and non-discriminatory approach to the creation and application of the technologies in question, as well as the use of a “mixed” regulatory model.