Diverse Patient Perspectives on the Use of Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare Decisions

Abstract

Importance: Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to improve diagnostic accuracy and treatment efficacy. Yet people are often reluctant to trust automated systems, and some patient populations may be particularly distrusting of healthcare innovations. Objective: To determine how diverse patient populations feel about the use of AI diagnostic tools, and whether framing the choice around proven accuracy, lack of bias, or other factors affects uptake. Design: After structured interviews with diverse actual patients, a randomized, blinded survey experiment placed respondents as mock patients into clinical vignettes and manipulated eight variables in factorial design. Each respondent viewed one vignette where their primary care physician (PCP) presented the choice of referral to a specialist clinic operated by an AI or human physician. Setting: Internet-based survey experiment