In an online survey of 100 practicing physicians who work in a large U.S. hospital or health system and use clinical decision support tools, four in five providers – 81% – agreed that generative artificial intelligence can improve care team interactions with patients.

The doctors surveyed by Wolter Kluwer also indicated high standards for selecting genAI tools – with 89% reporting they need vendors to be transparent about the sources of CDS data and want to be sure it comes from practicing medical experts before they use it for their clinical decisions. 

However, they overestimated American health consumers' openness to AI-supported medical advice compared to a previous genAI in healthcare survey of those consumers that the company conducted in November. 

The gap between physician and patient readiness for the role of artificial intelligence in care is noteworthy, Wolters Kluwer said in a statement.

WHY IT MATTERS

The new survey indicating that physician enthusiasm for generative AI in healthcare is trending up, which the company conducted between February 8 and 13, shows how much the integration of artificial intelligence saves time in ways that are winning over the profession. 

More than half of the physicians Wolters Kluwer surveyed – 54% – said they believe generative AI will save them 20% or more time looking for data to assist in clinical decisions, while more than two-thirds – 68% – said genAI helps them quickly search medical literature.

While they want to know where the source of information comes from, who created it and how it is sourced, the doctors placed confidence in technology from well-known, trusted vendors in the healthcare technology space. 

That knowledge makes 76% of the doctors surveyed comfortable using genAI, the data showed.

The survey also found that clear guidance or organizational policies governing the use of AI are still developing across healthcare. Over a third of the doctors – 37% – reported not having AI usage guidelines from their organizations, while almost half – 46% – said they don’t know of any guidelines.

Meanwhile, consumers have different views on the safety of genAI in doctor-patient interactions.

Most of the doctors – 66% – said they believe their patients would be confident if they knew their provider was using AI to make decisions about their care, but almost half of Americans who participated in the company's earlier consumer trust survey – 48% – said they would not be confident in such decisions.

When physicians were asked if they believed patients would be concerned about genAI-supported diagnoses, only one out of five physicians said yes. Conversely, when Wolters Kluwer asked consumers about their comfort with AI-supported diagnoses, four out of five said they were concerned.

THE LARGER TREND

While healthcare organizations have expected artificial intelligence to be adopted in care delivery, their leaders have expressed deep trust issues in the past. 

In a 2018 survey of 200 healthcare leaders by Intel, 33% said that they were not only concerned about patients' perception of AI, but that clinicians also held similar skepticism. They cited the chance of serious medical errors as the biggest risk.

Since then, numerous decision-support companies have integrated AI into their products. 

Last year, Wolters Kluwer introduced AI Labs, a clinical decision-support system accessible to 44,000 healthcare organizations in 190 countries through its UptoDate product.

"With this advanced capability, we have an implementation of generative AI that could help clinicians make better and more informed decisions to deliver the best care everywhere," Greg Samios, the company's president and CEO of clinical effectiveness, said when the company announced its AI integration in October.

ON THE RECORD

"Physicians are open to using generative AI in a clinical setting provided that applications are useful and trustworthy," said Dr. Peter Bonis, Wolters Kluwer Health's chief medical officer. "The source of content and transparency are key considerations," he noted.

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.