As the technology has improved, the popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) powered tools has increased drastically. AI powered tools are available to everyone, some for free and some for a small cost. These are being used for varying tasks, from small and simple to large and convoluted. Some utilize the AI for help or to provide information.
Different jobs and tasks also have AI as a support for daily operations. While it is true that AI can help in various situations, some people may have concerns over the utilization of AI as well as the overall purpose of it. This is a major concern especially in the healthcare domain.
Within the healthcare, there are healthcare professionals and patients who would have different perspectives on AI. AI can help in diagnostics, image analysis, and find patterns and connections that humans might overlook. The possible benefits AI can bring are faster service and efficiency, reduced costs, and improved availability among others. In most situations, healthcare professionals are the primary users of AI regardless of how the AI would be used. On the other hand, patients may end up as subjects of the AI tool, as in the healthcare professional may utilize the AI tool to help with a patient. This difference in perspective is why it is important to understand how healthcare professionals and patients would perceive the AI tools.
In most instances, healthcare professionals believe that the AI can help them with their tasks and patients also understand the possible benefits of AI tools. For healthcare professionals, potential issues are in the reliability of the AI system as well as who would be held accountable when issues arise.
The patients are concerned if there is no oversight on how the AI is used and would want the healthcare professionals to always have the final say and be accountable in anything treatment related over the AI. In addition, patients would want to know how their data is processed by the AI and have the option to not be a subjected to the use of AI.
In a more general view, the trust in the AI tool by patients and healthcare professionals is the key point that can be supported different ways, such as providing deeper explanations on how the system behaves or assuring the patients of that the AI is just the tool and not the final decision maker. So, while the overall perception towards AI in healthcare is mainly positive within patients and healthcare professionals, there are concerns that need to be accounted for whenever using AI tools.
Souces:
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ICAREWOUNDS project has received funding from the European Commission, ISCIII, NCBR, HRB, AKA and MUR under the framework the co-fund partnership of Transforming Health and Care Systems, THCS, (GA N° 101095654 of the EU Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme.