ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT: OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS, MAPPING LEGAL PATHWAYS AND PROTECTING PATIENT RIGHTS
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT: OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS, MAPPING LEGAL PATHWAYS AND PROTECTING PATIENT RIGHTS Manoj Kumar G, Guest Faculty, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Department of Legal Studies, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur (India) Kuchalapati Suma, LLM Scholar, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Department of Legal Studies, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur (India) Download Manuscript doi.org/10.70183/lijdlr.2026.v04.100 Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force in healthcare management, reshaping clinical decision-making, hospital administration and patient engagement, with its trajectory evolving from early expert systems such as MYCIN in the 1970s to contemporary machine learning algorithms now deployed in diagnostics and hospital operations, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital health solutions, telemedicine platforms and virtual hospitals, underscoring the potential of AI-enabled systems to deliver accessible, efficient and scalable healthcare, while simultaneously raising complex legal, ethical and governance challenges that demand rigorous scholarly inquiry. This paper examines the historical evolution, emerging trends and future directions of AI in healthcare management through the lens of legal research, situating AI within the broader framework of digital health, telemedicine and virtual hospitals and interrogating the ethical and legal dilemmas that accompany algorithmic decision making, particularly issues of data privacy, informed consent, liability and accountability. Statutory frameworks such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA, 1996) in the United States, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, 2016) in the European Union, and India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 provide critical benchmarks for evaluating the adequacy of existing legal safeguards, while landmark judicial pronouncements including Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017), which recognized privacy as a fundamental right in India and Teladoc v. Texas Medical Board (2015), which addressed telemedicine licensing disputes in the United States, illustrate the judiciary’s evolving role in mediating the intersection of law, technology and healthcare. The paper further explores ethical imperatives of transparency, fairness and equity in AI-driven healthcare delivery, noting risks of algorithmic bias, unequal access to digital health infrastructure and opacity of machine learning models and argues that future directions must include harmonization of cross-border telemedicine regulations, establishment of institutional AI ethics boards and integration of blockchain technologies for secure health data management, ultimately underscoring the necessity of adaptive legal frameworks that balance innovation with accountability and emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration between law, medicine and technology to ensure AI advances human welfare while safeguarding fundamental rights.