BERLIN: Doctors and other medical professionals who lean on "routine assistance" from artificial intelligence (AI) to carry out colonoscopies are at risk of losing the life-saving skills they have developed over years of on-the-job training.
A study taking in over 1,400 colonoscopies at four Polish hospitals found a 20% decrease in the ability of "experienced health professionals" to detect precancerous colon growths following the introduction of AI to the process.
"Continuous exposure to AI in colonoscopy" might reduce the effectiveness of "standard, non-AI assisted colonoscopy," the researchers warned.
"Our results are concerning given the adoption of AI in medicine is rapidly spreading," says Marcin Romanczyk of the Academy of Silesia.
"These findings temper the current enthusiasm for rapid adoption of AI-based technologies... and highlight the importance of carefully considering possible unintended clinical consequences," says Omer Ahmad of University College London, who was not involved in the study.
Featured in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, a medical journal, the paper is the first "to suggest the implementation of AI could lead to a reduction in the ability of medical professionals and impact health outcomes which are important to patients," according to the publisher.
The findings follow the publication of "several studies" that have suggested AI could help doctors identify cancers, according to The Lancet.
"We urgently need more research into the impact of AI on health professional’s skills across different medical fields," says Romanczyk.
In their paper, Romanczyk and colleagues called for more "behavioural research" to look into "the currently under-investigated mechanisms of how AI affects physician capability." – dpa
