AI's 'blind trust' problem puts patients at risk
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes deeply embedded in triage and clinical workflows, experts are raising concerns about a growing “blind trust” where clinicians and patients alike defer to algorithmic confidence over independent medical judgment.
Speaking at the HLTH Europe 2026 conference, panellists stressed that a person’s information ecosystem —who they follow on social media, the podcasts they listen to, and how they interact with AI — is becoming a dominant determinant of health outcomes.
Speaking at the event, Patient Safety Learning’s Chief Digital Officer Clive Flashman defined blind trust in this new era as the moment a “clinician stops being able to think independently, independently judging what they see, feel, or hear, because the algorithm has told them something that they should believe or do.”
Source: Medscape, 21 June 2026