Ten pillars for responsible and ethical AI adoption in Lebanon’s health sector

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly integrated into healthcare systems globally, including diagnostics, predictive analytics, and public health surveillance. AI adoption is increasing, yet fragile and resource-limited settings face distinct ethical and legal challenges. Lebanon provides a complex case: since 2019, the country has experienced economic collapse, workforce migration, rising non-communicable diseases, and sustained refugee influx, alongside rapid digital expansion. In 2026, the Ministry of Public Health launched the National Digital Health Transformation Strategy (2025–2030), recognizing AI as a potential lever to strengthen services and rebuild public trust. However, national ethical and legal standards specific to healthcare AI remain underdeveloped. In this perspective report, we present AI opportunities, legal gaps, and ethical risks within Lebanon’s fragmented public–private system. AI offers potential benefits in clinical decision support, public health surveillance, workforce support, and medical education. Yet algorithmic bias, data protection weaknesses, regulatory ambiguity, and unclear liability expose patients and professionals to uncertainty. Lebanon currently operates within a regulatory gray zone, as existing healthcare system and data laws predate machine-learning-based decision systems. Drawing on international ethical frameworks and pluralistic moral traditions, we propose an ethical containment strategy grounded in human dignity, accountability, transparency, and equity. We outline ten pillars, including human-led decision-making, sector-specific governance within the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH), bias containment, strengthened data protection and cybersecurity, clarified legal responsibility, professional training, participatory oversight, and lifecycle evaluation. Ethical containment does not resist innovation; rather, it seeks to ensure that AI strengthens resilience and trust instead of amplifying systematic vulnerabilities. The credibility and acceptance of AI in Lebanon will depend more on the strength of its ethical and institutional frameworks than on the sophistication of the technology itself.