Gastroenterologists generally trust and accept the use of AI medical tools in clinics and hospitals, study shows

Artificial intelligence (AI) has permeated many aspects of medicine, promising accurate diagnoses, better management decisions, and improved outcomes for both patients and the healthcare system. However, to successfully implement AI technology into clinical practice, trust and acceptance among healthcare providers to use such tools is crucial.

Using the treatment of digestive diseases as a case study, an international study led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) found that doctors in gastroenterology practice generally trust and accept AI medical devices.

The newspaper, “Risk perception, acceptance and confidence of using AI in gastroenterology practice in the Asia-Pacific region: web-based survey,“was published in JMIR AI.

Surveying 165 gastroenterologists and gastrointestinal surgeons in the Asia-Pacific region, the NTU Singapore-led research team found that eight in 10 say they would recommend the use of AI-powered tools in diagnosing and assessing colorectal polyps ( benign growths in the colon) accept and trust. that can become cancer).

When it came to using AI to guide an endoscopist in removing polyps found in the intestines of those undergoing screening colonoscopy, seven in ten said they accept and trust this AI-powered application.

The research team found no difference in acceptance levels between male and female doctors, between those working in public and private institutions, as well as between those working in large hospital departments and small group practices.

However, the number of years of experience was a crucial factor. While you might expect that young doctors would be more receptive to using technology in clinical decision-making, the study found that gastroenterologists with less than a decade of clinical experience perceived a higher risk of these AI-powered medical devices than their colleagues with more than ten years of clinical experience. of experience.

The findings highlight the need for more research into what influences doctors’ adoption of AI in their medical practice, said the team of scientists from Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Assistant Professor Wilson Goh from NTU Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine), who led the study, said: “For this study, we zoomed in on the use of AI in the context of gastroenterology, as we see that this specialty, with the intensive use of image-based diagnosis and surgical or endoscopic intervention will be able to easily use AI technologies in clinical management.

“This is one of the first reports on the perception, acceptance and trust of AI risks among gastroenterologists, with a unique focus on the Asia-Pacific region.”

Assistant Prof Goh, who is also co-director of NTU’s Center for Biomedical Informatics, said: “While survey participants found certain AI technologies risky, most practitioners still trusted and accepted these applications, highlighting the intricate relationship between the complexity of AI technologies and their acceptance.

“AI has the potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry, but integrating AI into the industry requires a better understanding of the factors that influence physician trust and acceptance of AI-powered medical support tools.”

NTU Senior Vice President (Health & Life Sciences) and Director of the Center for AI in Medicine Professor Joseph Sung, one of the co-authors of the study and a leading gastroenterologist, said: “The finding that more experienced gastroenterologists having a lower risk perception of AI tools is intriguing.

“Having more clinical experience in the treatment of colorectal polyps among senior gastroenterologists may have given these physicians greater confidence in their medical expertise and practice, thereby increasing confidence in exercising clinical discretion when new technologies are introduced. introduced.”

On the other hand, a general lack of confidence when there is a discrepancy between AI and the human experience may be one of the reasons why less experienced doctors consider AI to be riskier when it involves invasive surgical procedures such as the removal of polyps in the colon . said Professor Sung, who is also Dean of NTU’s LKCMedicine.

“A greater emphasis on AI, as we have implemented in NTU LKCMedicine’s recently updated curriculum, can help reduce risk aversion and promote responsible AI use in clinical practice,” he added.

Professor May O. Lwin, chair of the NTU Wee Kim Wee School of Communication, another co-author of the study whose research interest is in health communication, suggested that future studies could include patients’ perspectives by assessing the circumstances in which patients find themselves would be concerned about the use of AI technology in their health condition.

She added: “It is important to capture the perspectives of other stakeholders, such as nurses, endoscopy residents and the general public, to better understand how their opinions align or conflict. This will help us navigate more realistically through complex trust and acceptance issues and create valuable propositions and effective policies.”

How the research was conducted

For this study, the scientists developed a questionnaire based on questions or statements adapted from validated frameworks and models.

Participants were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed with the questions or statements designed to assess their level of confidence, acceptance, and risk perception of AI use in gastroenterology.

• Participants were also presented with three different medical scenarios in which AI could be applied:
• For detection: to help identify the presence of colorectal polyps and improve the detection rate of polyps that are likely to turn into cancer
• For characterization: to assess the nature of the pathology of polyps and predict the risk of a colorectal polyp becoming cancerous
• For intervention: to guide the removal of polyps during an endoscopy

For each medical scenario, participants were asked to rate their agreement with statements assessing their perceived risk and trust in AI tools, including:

• I expect major risks associated with the AI ​​diagnosis.
• I am willing to try the method myself.

They were also asked to rate their belief in statements assessing their acceptance of AI tools, such as:

• Do you believe that machine learning algorithms can outperform humans in some cases (as described above)?

The scores for each participant were then tabulated and used in statistical analyzes to find out how the factors of risk perception, acceptance and trust might interact with each other.