Exploring stakeholder attitudes towards AI in clinical practice

Abstract

ObjectivesDifferent stakeholders may hold varying attitudes towards artificial intelligence (AI) applications in healthcare, which may constrain their acceptance if AI developers fail to take them into account. We set out to ascertain evidence of the attitudes of clinicians, consumers, managers, researchers, regulators and industry towards AI applications in healthcare.MethodsWe undertook an exploratory analysis of articles whose titles or abstracts contained the terms ‘artificial intelligence’ or ‘AI’ and ‘medical’ or ‘healthcare’ and ‘attitudes’, ‘perceptions’, ‘opinions’, ‘views’, ‘expectations’. Using a snowballing strategy, we searched PubMed and Google Scholar for articles published 1 January 2010 through 31 May 2021. We selected articles relating to non-robotic clinician-facing AI applications used to support healthcare-related tasks or decision-making.ResultsAcross 27 studies, attitudes towards AI applications in healthcare, in general, were positive, more so for those with direct experience of AI, but provided certain safeguards were met. AI applications which automated data interpretation and synthesis were regarded more favourably by clinicians and consumers than those that directly influenced clinical decisions or potentially impacted clinician–patient relationships. Privacy breaches and personal liability for AI-related error worried clinicians, while loss of clinician oversight and inability to fully share in decision-making worried consumers. Both clinicians and consumers wanted AI-generated advice to be trustworthy, while industry groups emphasised AI benefits and wanted more data, funding and regulatory certainty.DiscussionCertain expectations of AI applications were common to many stakeholder groups from which a set of dependencies can be defined.ConclusionStakeholders differ in some but not all of their attitudes towards AI. Those developing and implementing applications should consider policies and processes that bridge attitudinal disconnects between different stakeholders.

Attitudes and perception of artificial intelligence in healthcare: A cross-sectional survey among patients

“…Accompanying to the supervision by a medical professional, additional preclinical measures like a scientific evaluation and an independent certification of AI systems are requested by patients. 8 , 10 Uncertainties among patients in this context could also be the reason why, despite a very positive attitude in general, only a smaller proportion of patients in our study would agree to be treated using AI personally and other patients would even refuse an AI treatment, although their proportion was much smaller than in previous studies. 30 In order to reach this sceptical group, it would be urgently necessary to combine the clinical implementation of AI methods with intensive information campaigns in order to overcome obvious reservations in the best possible way.…”

Acceptance of clinical artificial intelligence among physicians and medical students: A systematic review with cross-sectional survey

“…At present, the relatively limited use of clinical AI partly reflects a reluctance to change as well as potential misperceptions and negative attitudes held by physicians ( 9 , 10 ). Of course, physicians are likely to be the “earliest” adopters and inevitably become direct AI operators.…”

Stakeholder perceptions of the safety and assurance of artificial intelligence in healthcare

“…While patients generally had positive attitudes and trust in the technical aspects of AI, they expressed concern about the potential impact on the relationship with their clinicians. A literature review suggested that unfortunately patient attitudes towards AI are not usually included in clinical trials of healthcare AI applications (Scott et al, 2021), and some studies found that fear of dehumanisation of the relationship between patients and their clinicians was a significant concern (Esmaeilzadeh, 2020;Sisk et al, 2020). Such concerns echo findings from research about patient perceptions on their care, e.g., in the management of deterioration.…”

“…Expression of thanks for contribution divide, with younger people potentially being more open to new forms of technology compared with older people. Other studies also report positive attitudes towards healthcare AI, which tend to be more pronounced where the use of AI is geared towards process automation rather than towards direct patient care (Scott et al, 2021). However, participants often qualified their generic positive attitude towards AI by expressing certain underlying beliefs, such as if a technology is being used, they assume it must be safe and help their treatment.…”