Are you using artificial intelligence (AI) in the care you offer patients? Chances are they want to know that. A study in JAMA Network Open suggests that more than half of patients wish to be notified when AI is used in their health care.

Jodyn Platt, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the University of Michigan Medical School, and colleagues conducted a survey of 2,021 adults from June 27 to July 17, 2023. The survey included a video that described how AI is used in health care and scenario-based questions that provided examples. Participants were asked how true it was that “It is important that I am notified about the use of AI in my health care.” Options were “not at all true,” “somewhat true,” “fairly true,” and “very true.”

More than half—62.7%—of participants stated it was “very true” that they want to be notified, whereas only 4.8% of participants did not find notification important. Females expressed greater desire for notification than males, and White respondents expressed greater desire for notification than Black or Hispanic respondents.

The authors noted that the average level of desire to be notified about AI was higher than found in a previous survey using the same scale that asked about notification when using patients’ health information or biospecimens.

“[O]ur findings suggest that notification about AI will be necessary for ethical AI and should be a priority for organizations and policymakers,” Platt and colleagues wrote. “With this signal about the public’s preference for notification, the question for health systems and policymakers is not whether to notify patients but when and how. As health systems begin to establish governance for AI tools, multiple approaches to notification will be needed.”

For related information, see the Psychiatric News article “AI in Psychiatry: What APA Members Need to Know.”

Source: https://alert.psychnews.org