Survey Reveals a Majority of Americans Are Uncomfortable with AI in Healthcare
A recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found a majority of Americans are uncomfortable with their healthcare providers using artificial intelligence tools to aid the diagnosis and treatment, indicating a need to improve education on the benefits of AI in healthcare.
60% of respondents expressed discomfort with the use of AI in care settings, with 39% of respondents saying they are comfortable with their care providers relying on AI for medical care. 38% of respondents believe AI will lead to better health outcomes, such as faster diagnosis and treatment, with 33% of respondents believing AI would result in worse health outcomes. 27% of respondents said they didn’t think AI would make much difference to patient outcomes.
When probed about the potential benefits of AI in healthcare, 40% of respondents believe AI will reduce the number of mistakes by healthcare providers, such as misdiagnosis or the failure to diagnose a disease, compared to 27% who thought medical mistakes would increase. Out of the respondents who believe there is a problem with racial and ethnic bias in healthcare, 51% believe the situation would improve with AI whereas 15% said they believe the problem would get worse if AI was used to diagnose diseases and recommend treatments.
Other notable concerns about the use of AI include the privacy and security of sensitive health information. 37% of respondents believe AI will make health information less secure, compared to 22% who believe that security would improve. There is also a fear that healthcare providers will adopt AI systems too quickly before the systems have been fully tested and the risks are fully understood. Only 23% of respondents believe adoption will occur too slowly, resulting in missed opportunities.
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The biggest perceived problem with AI that was identified by the survey is the potential for patient-provider relationships to deteriorate. 78% of respondents believe relationships between patients and their healthcare providers will get worse if AI is used in the diagnosis and treatment of patients, with only 13% of respondents believing relationships would improve.
The greatest support for AI in healthcare is among younger adults and men, especially individuals with higher levels of education. 46% of men say they are comfortable with AI in healthcare, compared to 33% of women, with the highest support in the 18-29 age range (44%). Support falls to 35% in the over 50 age range. Individuals in the upper-income bracket were most in favor (49%) compared to 36% with HS or lower levels of education. Interestingly, even when individuals have heard a lot about AI, only 50% said they were comfortable with its use in healthcare.
When asked about specific applications of AI in healthcare, 65% of respondents said they would like AI to be used in their own skin cancer screenings; however, there was far less support for the other uses explored by Pew Research. 67% of respondents are opposed to the use of AI to determine the amount of pain medication prescribed, 59% would not want AI-powered robots conducting surgery, and 79% said they would not want AI chatbots to be used to support mental health.
The survey was conducted on 11,004 adults in the United States between December 12 and December 18, 2022.
