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Evaluating the public’s trust in AI in health care
May 28, 2025
Artificial intelligence (AI) is touching our lives in numerous ways these days, mostly for the better, many of us would say.
When it comes to health care, though, skepticism may be growing, according to two papers recently published in JAMA Network Open. Maurie Markman, MD, recently synthesized the findings of these papers in an article that appeared on May 21 on Medscape.
The first paper Dr. Markman reviews is “Patients’ Trust in Health Systems to Use Artificial Intelligence.” The second paper is “Public Attitudes Toward Notification of Use of Artificial Intelligence in Health Care.”
In both cases, the studies were surveys of US adults from the National Opinion Research Center. The first study was from June to July 2023. There were 2039 respondents (51% female) and “very reasonable representation based upon various ethnic subgroups,” according to Dr. Markman.
Key Points to Consider from the Papers
Dr. Markman writes:
“The general trust in the health care system was asked of this group. On a scale of 0 to 12, the mean score was 5.38. This is already telling you that perhaps there may be a bit of a concern here.
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Now, turning to the question that we’re highlighting here, which is about trust in the system to use AI responsibly. I’m going to say this and repeat it: 65.8% had low levels of trust in the healthcare system to use AI responsibly — 65.8%. Two out of three patients said they had low levels of trust in the system to use AI responsibly. This is, in my opinion, a really serious statement about how the public is viewing the situation.
Furthermore, 57.7% had low levels of trust in their health care system to be sure that AI would not harm them — more than half said they had a low level of trust that their system would make sure that AI would not harm them. This is very concerning.
In the second study, there were 2021 respondents; a slight majority, 52%, were female. There was a statement posed: “It is important that I am notified about the use of AI in my health care.” The question was, “How important is that statement?” and 62.7% of respondents said — and this is the highest level — it was very true that they wanted to be notified if AI was being used in their health care. Only 4.8%, or 1 out of 20 patients, said they didn’t want to be notified.”
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