International pharmacy students' perceptions towards artificial intelligence in medicine—A multinational, multicentre cross‐sectional study

Abstract

AimTo explore international undergraduate pharmacy students' views on integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into pharmacy education and practice.MethodsThis cross‐sectional institutional review board‐approved multinational, multicentre study comprised an anonymous online survey of 14 multiple‐choice items to assess pharmacy students' preferences for AI events in the pharmacy curriculum, the current state of AI education, and students' AI knowledge and attitudes towards using AI in the pharmacy profession, supplemented by eight demographic queries. Subgroup analyses were performed considering gender, study year, tech‐savviness, and prior AI knowledge and AI events in the curriculum using the Mann‐Whitney U‐test. Variances were reported for responses in Likert scale format.ResultsThe survey gathered 387 pharmacy student opinions across 16 faculties and 12 countries. Students showed predominantly positive attitudes towards AI in medicine (58%, N=225) and expressed a strong desire for more AI education (72%, N=276). However, they reported limited general knowledge of AI (63%, N=242) and felt inadequately prepared to use AI in their future careers (51%, N=197). Male students showed more positive attitudes towards increasing efficiency through AI (p=0.011), while tech‐savvy and advanced‐year students expressed heightened concerns about potential legal and ethical issues related to AI (p<0.001/p=0.025, respectively). Students who had AI courses as part of their studies reported better AI knowledge (p<0.001) and felt more prepared to apply it professionally (p<0.001).ConclusionOur findings underline the generally positive attitude of international pharmacy students towards AI application in medicine and highlight the necessity for a greater emphasis on AI education within pharmacy curricula.

The Knowledge of Students at Bursa Faculty of Medicine towards Artificial Intelligence: A Survey Study

“…These findings indicate that students have a basic understanding of AI but require deeper comprehension its use in medicine. a similar pattern was observed in other studies conducted from different countries [7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

“…Our research similar with other research conducted before. However student thought that AI could replace doctors in the future were higher in MS than MA [10][11][12][13][14].…”

Comparing Student and Writing Instructor Perceptions of Academic Dishonesty When Collaborators Are Artificial Intelligence or Human

“…These studies typically begin with a descriptive survey that identifies how students from different disciplines perceive AI. Such studies include topics about students' experiences and attitudes with using AI (Busch et al, 2023;Chan & Hu, 2023), students' beliefs about AI's impact on society (Jeffrey, 2020) and fears about AI in terms of students' professional careers (Busch et al, 2023;Jeffrey, 2020). Thematic analysis of engineering student perceptions of ChatGPT identified consistent findings while noting that students did not see ChatGPT as a major threat to learning or academic integrity (Shoufan, 2023, p. 38814).…”

Perspectives of Pharmacy Students on Ethical Issues Related to Artificial Intelligence: A Comprehensive Survey Study

“…AI is revolutionizing healthcare by aiding in precision and personalized medicine, predicting treatment responses, optimizing drug doses, and minimizing adverse events [ 8 ]. The rapid integration of AI in healthcare education is driven by students’ positive perceptions and demand for AI incorporation in their training [ 9 ]. Global professional pharmacy organizations’ recommendations, like those by the International Pharmaceutical Federation, emphasize the importance of incorporating digital health and AI instruction into pharmacy curricula [ 10 ].…”