Almost Half (49.73%) Thought AI Would Accurately Diagnose Medical Conditions

Artificial intelligence has so many capabilities, and the majority of the public started realizing that and interacting with AI on a daily basis after ChatGPT came to be last year. However, AI has more potential than we think.

Recently, research by Harvard showed that ChatGPT passed the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam. AI was able to outperform about 10% of medical tests that fail annually. AI tools can be implemented in many areas of our lives, and lately, they have been applied to healthcare.

AI’s role in healthcare could include large language models that can be applied to administrative functions such as processing medical claims or analyzing medical records. This is implemented in real life in Amazon’s HealthScribe, which transcribes conversations between doctors and patients to extract medical information, creating structured records of encounters.

Another example is the use of supervised machine learning to enhance the interpretation of clinical data. Many specialties, such as radiology and pathology, are currently using AI to read MRIs and analyze images. Google Brain AI has developed software that analyzes images from the back of the eye, which helps in diagnosing two of the common causes of blindness.

Whether you are an AI fan or not, the technology has potential. But AI’s ability to replace doctors is an idea we wanted to know the public’s opinion on. Real Research, an online survey app, launched a survey on will AI replace doctors, and here are the insights.

Highlights:

• 49.73% thought AI would diagnose medical conditions accurately.
• 42.94% would feel at ease with an AI system proposing diagnostic tests and medications for a medical condition they would be experiencing.
• 39.14% were neutral about AI replacing the empathetic communication provided by doctors.

AI Technology in Healthcare

Professionals in healthcare are looking for ways to improve the industry, and lately, after an AI passed the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam, AI is considered to be used.

AI’s role in healthcare includes interpreting clinical data, processing medical claims, and analyzing medical records. Using AI technology in healthcare to assist with tasks typically performed by doctors is a concept that 48.24% were well aware of. 41.65% were vaguely familiar with the concept, and 10.11% didn’t have any knowledge of it.

AI can diagnose medical conditions based on patient data and symptoms, and 49.73% thought AI would do so accurately. However, 29.77% weren’t sure of AI’s accuracy, and 20.55% didn’t think AI could accurately diagnose medical conditions.

Read Also: 70.59% Familiar With AI-Powered Dementia Diagnosis Tools

Artificial Intelligence for Medical Diagnostics

As we mentioned above, AI’s role in healthcare can enhance the interpretation of clinical data. AI’s ability to analyze patterns in large sets of health records could lead to more effective treatment plans for patients, according to half the respondents (50.79%). On the other hand, 29.79% weren’t sure of AI’s ability to lead to more effective treatment plans, and 19.42% opposed it.

AI can analyze patterns in health records and suggest personalized treatments. Almost half (42.94%) would feel at ease with an AI system proposing diagnostic tests and medications for a medical condition they would be experiencing. Meanwhile, 31.37% weren’t sure if they would feel comfortable with AI, and 25.69% stated they wouldn’t feel at ease.

Will AI Replace Doctors?

AI’s role in healthcare could benefit the industry, but the question is how much AI should be involved. 25.11% thought AI should only assist doctors and not replace them, while on the other hand, 23.03% stated the opposite and said AI should completely replace doctors in healthcare. 21.78% believe AI should primarily assist doctors with limited doctors’ substitution, 15.62% said AI should mostly replace doctors and have some doctors’ assistance, and lastly, 14.46% thought AI and doctors should have equal roles in healthcare. 

Aside from doctors’ role of diagnosing illnesses and prescribing medicine, doctors try their best to communicate empathetically with the patients, a task that AI can have some trouble with.

39.14% were neutral about AI replacing the empathetic communication provided by doctors, 28.93% thought AI could replace it effectively, 19.27% stated AI could replace it very effectively, and only 12.66% believe it could be ineffective (9.64% ineffectively, 3.02% very ineffectively).

Doctors have to deliver tough news to patients in cases of serious illnesses, and it’s crucial that they be as compassionate as they can be.

While human interaction and compassion in healthcare are seen as important by 32.68%, 31.07% weren’t sure of their response. 27.75% thought human interaction is very important in health care; 6.82% said it isn’t important; and a minority of 1.68% said it’s not very important.