Medical Students’ Perceptions towards Digitization and Artificial Intelligence: A Mixed-Methods Study

Abstract

Digital technologies in health care, including artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, constantly increase. The aim of this study was to explore attitudes of 2020 medical students’ generation towards various aspects of eHealth technologies with the focus on AI using an exploratory sequential mixed-method analysis. Data from semi-structured interviews with 28 students from five medical faculties were used to construct an online survey send to about 80,000 medical students in Germany. Most students expressed positive attitudes towards digital applications in medicine. Students with a problem-based curriculum (PBC) in contrast to those with a science-based curriculum (SBC) and male undergraduate students think that AI solutions result in better diagnosis than those from physicians (p < 0.001). Male undergraduate students had the most positive view of AI (p < 0.002). Around 38% of the students felt ill-prepared and could not answer AI-related questions because digitization in medicine and AI are not a formal part of the medical curriculum. AI rating regarding the usefulness in diagnostics differed significantly between groups. Higher emphasis in medical curriculum of digital solutions in patient care is postulated.