Exploring healthcare professionals’ understanding and experiences of artificial intelligence technology use in the delivery of healthcare: An integrative review

Abstract

Background: The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into our digital healthcare system is seen as a significant strategy to contain Australia’s rising healthcare costs, support clinical decision making, manage chronic disease burden and support our ageing population. With the increasing roll-out of ‘digital hospitals’, electronic medical records, new data capture and analysis technologies, as well as a digitally enabled health consumer, the Australian healthcare workforce is required to become digitally literate to manage the significant changes in the healthcare landscape. To ensure that new innovations such as AI are inclusive of clinicians, an understanding of how the technology will impact the healthcare professions is imperative. Method: In order to explore the complex phenomenon of healthcare professionals’ understanding and experiences of AI use in the delivery of healthcare, an integrative review inclusive of quantitative and qualitative studies was undertaken in June 2018. Results: One study met all inclusion criteria. This study was an observational study which used a questionnaire to measure healthcare professional’s intrinsic motivation in adoption behaviour when using an artificially intelligent medical diagnosis support system (AIMDSS). Discussion: The study found that healthcare professionals were less likely to use AI in the delivery of healthcare if they did not trust the technology or understand how it was used to improve patient outcomes or the delivery of care which is specific to the healthcare setting. The perception that AI would replace them in the healthcare setting was not evident. This may be due to the fact that AI is not yet at the forefront of technology use in healthcare setting. More research is needed to examine the experiences and perceptions of healthcare professionals using AI in the delivery of healthcare.