AI is making its way into patient conversations, hospital rooms, and administrative work across healthcare. But there are downsides of using AI in the clinic, like cybersecurity risks and a lack of regulations.
A study published Aug. 12 in the Lancet found another possible issue: clinicians losing their skills.
The research was conducted by hospital and academic researchers affiliated with institutions in Poland, Spain, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Japan, and the UK from Sept. 8, 2021, through March 9, 2022. It looked into how well endoscopists who “regularly used AI” performed colonoscopies when the technology was and was not available to them.
Researchers conducted the observational study of 1,443 patients at four endoscopy centers in Poland that began using AI tools to help detect polyps. They evaluated the quality of colonoscopies three months before and three months after implementing AI.
They found that when using AI tools, clinicians had lower adenoma detection rates (ADR), or a way to measure colonoscopy quality by detecting polyps, compared to when they performed the procedures without AI.
The study also found that the ADR of standard colonoscopy dropped from 28.4% (or 226 of 795 participants) before AI was in place to 22.4% (145 of 648 participants) after AI usage.
“Continuous exposure to AI might reduce the ADR of standard non-AI assisted colonoscopy, suggesting a negative effect on endoscopist behavior,” the researchers wrote.
This research coincides with other studies, including one from MIT that suggests AI usage weakens critical thinking skills.
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