AI holds promise for safer, more equitable paediatric surgery with robust ethical safeguards, updated legal frameworks and sustained regulatory vigilance. What is already known: (i) AI enhances image guidance, robotic precision and risk prediction in surgery; (ii) children's data require special protection under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and ICO Children's Code; and (iii) NHS England funds AI pilots, but paediatric-specific governance remains underdeveloped. This study: (i) maps UK-specific ethical (privacy, consent, bias) and legal (Montgomery, Consumer Protection Act 1987, MHRA) duties in AI-assisted paediatric surgery; (ii) proposes a federated data-sharing consortium and tiered liability model, and offers a practical governance framework for clinicians, regulators, and NHS boards.
Anand et al. (Mon,) studied this question.