If a clinician you care about counts on AI to help make medical decisions, remind them: Tort law principles hold that doing so means risking liability should a patient sue over harm done.

As healthcare AI opens new avenues to improve care quality without unduly increasing operational costs, the technology also expands potential exposure to civil and criminal liabilities. And that’s not only for providers but also payers and suppliers.

Training AI for use in healthcare requires feeding algorithms patient data, and lots of it. This opens data custodians—typically hospitals—to various points of potential legal exposure.