IntroductionRapid advancements are being made in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support digital healthcare transformation and provide evidence-based care. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate the knowledge of basic principles, limitations, and applications of AI in healthcare among medical students and doctors of a developing country. MethodsTwo free webinars were hosted for doctors and medical students in northern India (Punjab state) to create awareness about the role of AI in healthcare and the recent advancements made in various medical specialties. The delegates' perceptions about their knowledge and interest in AI were ascertained using the Likert scale (1 = low, 5 = high) in the post-event questionnaire. Using Chi-square and cross-tabulation analysis, associations were examined between knowledge of AI, gender, medical experience, and other variables. ResultsOut of the total of 621 registrants, 367 filled the post-event questionnaire and were included in the analysis. Although the majority felt that AI will play an important role in delivering healthcare services in the future (74.4%), they did not feel knowledgeable about the applications (79.6%) and limitations of AI (82.8%). A relatively lesser proportion of doctors (51.6%) felt interested to learn more about AI than medical students (69.3%). Furthermore, a lesser proportion of doctors (65.2%) felt that AI will be beneficial for their career as a doctor as compared with medical students (84.4%). The majority of medical students (83.5%) had never attended any webinar/lecture or course on AI in healthcare and felt that they have received minimal advice (80.7%) from their medical school on teaching about AI and its applications. A significantly (P = 0.001) higher proportion of female medical students were unknowledgeable about the principles and applications of AI than male respondents. However, female medical students were significantly (P = 0.004) more interested than male medical students to learn about AI. ConclusionsFormal training courses to teach about AI should be focused on to facilitate coherent and scientifically supported dissemination of knowledge in medical schools and hospitals. Further large-scale studies are needed to understand the perception and attitude of medical students and doctors regarding AI to steer policy development and medical education curriculum changes to spark an interest in emerging technologies and drive innovation.
Global surgery broadly refers to a rapidly expanding multidisciplinary field concerned with providing better and equitable surgical care across international health systems. Global surgery initiatives primarily focus on capacity building, advocacy, education, research, and policy development in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). The inadequate surgical, anesthetic, and obstetric care currently contributes to 18 million preventable deaths each year. Hence, there is a growing interest in the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) that provides a distinctive opportunity to enhance surgical services in LMICs. AI modalities have been used for personalizing surgical education, automating administrative tasks, and developing realistic and cost-effective simulation-training programs with provisions for people with special needs. Furthermore, AI may assist with providing insights for governance, infrastructure development, and monitoring/predicting stock take or logistics failure that can help in strengthening global surgery pillars. Numerous AI-assisted telemedicine-based platforms have allowed healthcare professionals to virtually assist in complex surgeries that may help to improve surgical accessibility across LMICs. Challenges in implementing AI technology include the misrepresentation of minority populations in the datasets leading to discriminatory bias. Human hesitancy, employment uncertainty, automation bias, and role of confounding factors need to be further studied for equitable utilization of AI. With a focused and evidence-based approach, AI could help several LMICs overcome bureaucratic inefficiency and develop more efficient surgical systems.
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