Artificial intelligence-enabled health applications for diagnostic care are becoming widely available to consumers; some can even be accessed via smartphones. Google, for instance, recently announced its entry into this market with an AI-based tool that helps people identify skin, hair, and nail conditions. A major barrier to the adoption of these technologies, however, is that consumers tend to trust medical AI less than human health care providers. They believe that medical AI fails to cater to their unique needs and performs worse than comparable human providers, and they feel that they cannot hold AI accountable for mistakes in the same way they could a human.
For Patients to Trust Medical AI, They Need to Understand It
AI has huge potential to improve the quality and affordability of care — but only if providers explain how it works.
September 03, 2021
Summary.
AI holds great promise to increase the quality and reduce the cost of health care in developed and developing countries. But one obstacle to using it is patients don’t trust it. One key reason is they perceive medical AI to be a black box and they think they know more about physicians’ decision-making process than they actually do, the authors research found. A remedy: Provide patients with an explanation of how both types of care providers make decisions.
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