FUTURE-AI: international consensus guideline for trustworthy and deployable artificial intelligence in healthcare

TLDR

Despite advances in AI for healthcare, its deployment in clinical practice remains limited. The paper introduces the FUTURE‑AI framework to guide the development and deployment of trustworthy AI tools in healthcare. The framework was built by a 117‑member, 50‑country consortium over two years, establishing six guiding principles and 30 best practices that span the entire AI lifecycle from design to monitoring.

Abstract

Despite major advances in artificial intelligence (AI) research for healthcare, the deployment and adoption of AI technologies remain limited in clinical practice. This paper describes the FUTURE-AI framework, which provides guidance for the development and deployment of trustworthy AI tools in healthcare. The FUTURE-AI Consortium was founded in 2021 and comprises 117 interdisciplinary experts from 50 countries representing all continents, including AI scientists, clinical researchers, biomedical ethicists, and social scientists. Over a two year period, the FUTURE-AI guideline was established through consensus based on six guiding principles—fairness, universality, traceability, usability, robustness, and explainability. To operationalise trustworthy AI in healthcare, a set of 30 best practices were defined, addressing technical, clinical, socioethical, and legal dimensions. The recommendations cover the entire lifecycle of healthcare AI, from design, development, and validation to regulation, deployment, and monitoring.