As radiology moves (albeit slowly) to adopt clinical AI, how do patients feel about having their images interpreted by a computer? Researchers in a new study in JACR queried patients about their attitudes regarding mammography AI, finding that for the most part the jury is still out.
Researchers got responses to a 36-question survey from 3.5k patients presenting for breast imaging at eight U.S. practices from 2023-2024, finding …
- The most common response to four questions on general perceptions of medical AI was “neutral,” with a range of 43-51%.
- When asked if using AI for medical tasks was a bad idea, more patients disagreed than agreed (28% vs. 25%).
- Regarding confidence that medical AI was safe, patients were more dubious, with higher levels of disagreement (27% vs. 20%).
- When asked if medical AI was helpful, 43% were neutral but positive attitudes were higher (35% vs. 19%).
The Takeaway
Much like clinicians, patients seem to be taking a wait-and-see attitude toward mammography AI. The new survey does reveal fault lines – like privacy and equitability – that AI developers would do well to address as they work to win broader acceptance for their technology.
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