Where do patients think AI will have the greatest impact in healthcare? And do clinicians agree?
When asked what areas the healthcare industry should prioritize when it comes to AI or digital tools, the top five patient selections included quality improvement, clearer diagnosis and treatment explanations in plain language, faster access to appointments, price/cost transparency, and billing clarity, and detecting health misinformation online.
Interestingly, clinicians agreed with patients on a number of areas for future AI prioritization.
When looking at geography, rural patients’ top priority for the use of AI in health care is price/cost transparency and billing clarity, and both rural and suburban patients are interested in AI tools that provide faster access to appointments in the next 2-3 years.
Areas the healthcare industry should prioritize when it comes to AI or digital tools
What risks are patients worried about most when it comes to AI in healthcare?
Patients have a wide array of concerns when it comes to AI in healthcare; however, there are multiple areas that are of fairly equal concern, including: who is responsible if an AI-generated recommendation is wrong or causes harm, data privacy and security of health information, and the erosion of clinical decision-making skill of clinicians because of overreliance on AI.
In nearly all cases, women express more concern than men when it comes to AI in the care setting:
Rural patients also show more concern than urban and suburban patients, particularly when it comes to the sale/leak of PHI (83% versus 72% for urban and 66% for suburban), concerns about who is responsible if AI recommendations cause harm (83% versus 73% of urban and 74% of suburban), concerns about lack of regulations/standards (81% versus 66% of urban and 69% of suburban), and concerns around data privacy and security of health info (77% versus 76% of urban and 70% of suburban).
As technology companies enter the healthcare industry with the promise of developing AI solutions that address health equity and eliminate healthcare deserts, it’s important to understand how rural patients feel about AI in healthcare, where there is value, and where more needs to be done to build trust.
How would you rate the risks of the following as related to Gen AI
If it’s free, you are the product: Patients and sponsored AI tools
Nearly three-quarters of patients (71%) say they worry about the sale or leak of their protected health information, and that concern ranks higher for women (78% versus 65% for men) and rural patients (83% versus 72% for urban and 66% suburban patients).
When asked about their level of concern that free advertising-sponsored AI tools may produce biased answers, 61% of patients say they are very/somewhat concerned. This is lower compared with clinicians, 73% of whom say they are very/somewhat concerned that sponsored tools provide biased responses. Additionally, patients located in urban areas expressed more concern (67%) than their suburban (57%) and rural (60%) counterparts.
When asked if they would have concerns if their doctor was using AI tools that are sponsored specifically by the pharmaceutical industry because that could influence their clinical decisions, 71% of patients agreed they would be concerned.