New Technologies in International Law / Tymofeyeva, Crhák et al.

especially in emergencies and in situations where immediate medical intervention is required to reduce casualties. 450 This technological advancement also improves existing healthcare systems, specifically in medical imaging and coronary artery disease diagnosis, by reducing human error, increasing patient care, and reducing the workload on healthcare professionals, which are currently reported as insufficient for the growing global populace. 451 In Nigeria, it is estimated that the ratio of medical doctors per 10,000 citizens currently stands at 3.95, as there are currently only 84,277 medical doctors, marking a considerable human resource shortage in comparison to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended ratio of 1 doctor to 600 individuals. 452 It is also reported that this figure is possibly an overestimation, as it only considers the total number of medical doctors registered in Nigeria but does not consider those who might have died, retired, changed professions, or emigrated from the country. 453 Nigeria is reported to be the country with the highest medical workforce export in Africa to destinations including the United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Australia, and Saudi Arabia. 454 The scale of this mass emigration is depicted in a national statistical report published in 2022 by the UK government, which revealed that 13,609 healthcare workers left Nigeria for the UK between 2021 and 2022. 455 This number is speculated to keep rising, reducing the number of healthcare professionals available to administer proper healthcare services, thus inhibiting proper access to healthcare services. In such a dire setting as is reflected in Nigeria, AI has the potential to bridge the human resource constraints, as AI algorithms applied in medical diagnosis typically match the professional expert level of healthcare practitioners and, in some cases, even surpass experts in diagnosing malignant tumors. 456 AI is also currently applied in drug discovery to guide researchers in assembling groups of participants for costly clinical trials. 457 As developing countries like Nigeria currently struggle with a high burden of disease, lack of trained healthcare providers, and poor healthcare delivery infrastructure, it is in these settings that AI has a tremendous potential to promote access to healthcare by reducing costs incurred due to accessing healthcare services, reducing health inequity 450 Bini SA, ‘Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Cognitive Computing: What Do These Terms Mean and How Will They Impact Health Care?’ (2018) 33 J. Arthroplast 2358. 451 World Health Organization, ‘World health statistics 2023: Monitoring health for the SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals,’ (2023) . 452 World Health Organization, ‘Health workforce: medical doctors’ . 453 Onah CK and others, ‘Physician Emigration from Nigeria and the Associated Factors: The Implications to Safeguarding the Nigeria Health System’ (2022) 20 Human Resources for Health 80. 454 Emigration of Nigerian Medical Doctors Survey Report 2018. NOI Polls, Abuja accessed 4 December 2023. 455 ‘National statistics: Why do people come to the UK? To work’ ( London: Gov.UK , 2022) . 456 Hunter B, Hindocha S, Lee RW, ‘The role of artificial intelligence in early cancer diagnosis’ (2022) 14(6) Cancers 1524. 457 He J et al, ‘The Practical Implementation of Artificial Intelligence Technologies in Medicine’ (2019) 25 Nature Medicine .

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