#32 Miranda Boldrini [Link: \;https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/3830997416363152?p=ElBzcdBR1iKqAOUSVJ | ID Teams: 383 099 741 636 315 2 \; \; \; | Password: eX3YZ3mf]
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30 November 2026 | 3:00pm - 4.30pm (Lisbon Time Zone)
Informing or Influencing? Clinical Decision Support Systems\, Trust and Autonomy in Multiple Sclerosis: The PRIMUS Case
#Seminar 31: When an AI decision-support tool enters the conversation between a physician and a patient about treatment\, what does it mean to respect the patient&rsquo\;s autonomy\, and whom\, or what\, does the patient trust? This talk examines these questions through a case study: PRIMUS\, a decision-support tool for multiple sclerosis that shows neurologists and patients\, in the form of curves\, how the disease of comparable patients has evolved under different long-term treatments. The tool is being studied in a clinical trial in France\, and its designers expect it to support the discussion with patients\, including those who refuse treatment. This expectation raises a classical question of clinical ethics in a new form: when such curves are shown to a reluctant patient\, do they inform her or influence her\, and where does the line fall? Combining conceptual analysis with ethnographic fieldwork conducted before the tool&rsquo\;s deployment\, I argue for a relational approach\, informed by the ethics of care\, which treats trust and the clinician&rsquo\;s responsibility as conditions of the patient&rsquo\;s autonomy\, alongside access to information.
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Short bio: Miranda Boldrini is a postdoctoral researcher in the ethics of AI in healthcare at the Centre Franç\;ois Viè\;te\, Nantes University (France). Within the PRIMUS project\, she is part of the team conducting the qualitative study on the use of a clinical decision-support tool for multiple sclerosis. Her work combines moral philosophy\, care ethics and ethnographic fieldwork.