If artificial intelligence can help a doctor look at the patient and not the computer screen, then patients are all in favour, says a new survey.
Artificial intelligence that allows a doctor to help the patient feel like an individual – being treated as a human being by a human being – is the most likely to gain patient approval, according to a new white paper by Microsoft + Nuance, promoted by the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association.
A survey of 13,500 patients from Australia and 10 European countries explored patient perceptions of AI use in their interactions with their doctors, and whether they felt AI could improve the clinician-patient interaction.
“Many respondents have felt their clinician was too focused on their computer screen during consultations,” wrote the report’s authors.
“This is likely due to clinicians … with limited time between consultations, [feeling that] they must try to capture everything with the patient in front of them.”
Younger patients were found to be more likely to support using AI for clinical documentation. Older respondents were more likely to express reservations about doctors integrating AI into their workflow.
Regardless of age, a “large proportion” of respondents had some level of concern about the use of AI in clinical reporting.
“Education will be key here as more healthcare professionals introduce AI into their workflows, to demonstrate the benefits, impact, and security of their solutions,” said the report.
For many respondents the most important factor was feeling like an individual – being treated as a human being by a human being.
“The solutions we use in healthcare settings should create an environment where clinicians and patients can connect as people without clinicians needing to focus on the screen.”
Australia was ranked seventh of the 11 countries surveyed for patient access to digital health records, with just 61% of respondents able to read their records. Sweden topped the list with 89%, while Germany trailed the pack with just 27% of patients with access.
When asked if they felt they had their doctor’s full attention during a consultation, 35% of Australian patients said they did not, with 49% expressing frustration.
Just under a quarter of Australian respondents (23%) had witnessed their clinician dictating a clinical letter in their presence, with 76% of them appreciative of that, and 63% saying it facilitated their interaction with the doctor; 70% said it helped them to understand and take a more active part in the consultation.
Almost a third of Australian respondents (30%) felt the use of AI to help doctors write their clinical letters was a good idea. In 18 to 24-year-olds that number rose to 43%, while in the over 65s it dropped to 26%.
AI would free up time for the doctor, according to 40% of Australian respondents. Half of them were concerned that AI was “not regulated”, and 24% were concerned because “it was recorded”.
Australia has established an AI advisory body, which published the National Policy Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare in 2023.
This outlines how the country’s care system plans to adopt technologies such as generative AI, with a particular focus on safety, quality, ethics, and security.
Australia has yet to launch any AI-specific legislation, though medical devices that incorporate AI are already covered under the Therapeutic Goods Administration.