# Patients told which AI is used in their care, in plain language

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-data-patient-facing-model-cards/  
OnCo record `idea-data-patient-facing-model-cards` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Every patient would be able to see which AI tools were used in their diagnosis or treatment plan, what they do, how well they work and how to question them.

## Summary

Patients are rarely informed when AI has contributed to their diagnosis or plan. The proposal requires a patient-facing model card, drawn from the model registry, attached to the patient's record whenever an AI tool influences care: what the tool did, its validated performance in plain terms, the version, and how to request human review. This supports informed consent, builds trust and creates a feedback channel for errors.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: Disclosure will not reduce acceptance of validated AI tools and will increase patient trust and reporting of suspected errors, providing a new post-market signal.
- Rationale: Transparency about automated decisions is required in other domains (credit, employment) and surveys show patients want to know; disclosure is also a precondition for meaningful consent.
- Proposed test: Implement disclosure at three centres for one year; survey patient trust and acceptance versus centres without disclosure; count error reports attributable to patients.
- Maturity: speculative
- Actor: patients

## Sources

- Bottleneck evidence (AI that is built but not validated or deployed): Wu et al., How medical AI devices are evaluated: limitations and recommendations from an analysis of FDA approvals (Nature Medicine 2021): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01312-x

## Connected records

- ideas: [A public registry of every AI model used in cancer care](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-data-clinical-ai-model-registry/)
- fronts: [AI & Computation](https://onco.cc/fronts/ai-computation/)
- bottlenecks: [AI that is built but not validated or deployed](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-ai-validation/), [Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-patient-voice/)
- key papers: [How medical AI devices are evaluated: limitations and recommendations from an analysis of FDA approvals](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-wu-nat-med/)

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