July 19, 2023
More than half of people would trust a diagnosis made by artificial intelligence more than one made by a human doctor, according to a new study conducted by Innerbody Research.
Innerbody surveyed over 1,000 people across four generations (Baby Boomers through Gen Z) to see how they felt about these new advancements in medical technology.
Key Takeaways
- Sixty-four percent of people surveyed would trust a diagnosis made by AI over that of a human doctor.
- The older the generation, the more unlikely they are to support the use of AI in healthcare.
- People are most comfortable with AI in the medical imaging analysis aspect of healthcare.
- The more complicated a medical procedure is, the less comfortable people are with a robot performing it.
- Sixty-nine percent of respondents said they were concerned with the long-term effects of nanotechnology on the human body.
According to the survey, the older the generation, the more unlikely a person is to support the use of AI in healthcare. This result likely aligns with your expectations; with younger generations growing up alongside technology, their comfort level is bound to be higher than those introduced to it later in life. To further illustrate this, we found that 6.8 percent of Baby Boomers were not comfortable with any AI in medicine at all.
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When asked about the different ways AI could be used in healthcare, medical imaging analysis was the most accepted application across all generations. In fact, three out of five people reported being comfortable with this aspect of AI involvement in the healthcare system. The survey participants’ observations hold merit, Innerbody notes, as numerous studies have been published demonstrating the ability of Deep Learning technology to identify cancer in radiology images.
Overall, two out of three survey respondents said they were comfortable with the use of AI in healthcare, with men (67 percent) being slightly more comfortable than women (64 percent). When asked what the most concerning aspect of AI is in regard to healthcare, every generation except Gen X reported the accuracy of diagnosis — this generation was slightly more concerned with data and privacy.
The study also found that 78 percent of people would be comfortable with an AI algorithm creating a personalized treatment plan for them. Interestingly, survey participants reported that legal and regulatory issues were the least concerning aspect of AI in the healthcare system. This could be due to the public perception that the FDA will tightly regulate AI.
