Previously submitted to: JMIR Formative Research (no longer under consideration since Sep 28, 2022)
Date Submitted: Apr 7, 2022
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Psychiatrists’ Attitudes Toward Artificial Intelligence: Tasks, Job Security and Benefits
ABSTRACT
Background:
Researchers have predicted that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will affect job security for physicians in the future, including in the mental health industry.
Objective:
The objective of this study is to assess local psychiatrists’ opinions regarding the future impact of AI/ML on their daily 10 key practice tasks in addition to determine the benefits and drawbacks of AI/ML.
Methods:
The design was cross-sectional and included psychiatrists (n = 62) registered in Bahrain, who participated via a Google survey.
Results:
Out of 52 eligible participants, there were 43 survey respondents (81.3%). Only 9.3% of respondents felt it was likely that AI/ML will replace average physicians in providing empathetic care. Physicians speculated that AI/ML is likely to replace average physicians in tasks such as establishing prognosis (67%), synthesizing information to reach diagnosis (72.1%) and obtaining medical/psychiatric histories (51.2%); however, they were uncertain regarding other tasks, such as performing medical and mental status examinations (74.4%) and providing empathetic care (81.4%). The main benefits of AI/ML were perceived to be facilitating a quicker diagnosis (69.8%) and replacing the physician role (76.7%). The study findings were not related to age group, gender, seniority or level of AI/ML knowledge.
Conclusions:
This is the first local study to evaluate the attitudes of psychiatrists toward the effects of AI/ML on the future of psychiatry. Our findings provide useful data on the impact of AI/ML on job security as well as its benefits. Most participants were worried about the possibility of machines replacing human skills and practices and acknowledged both the advantages and challenges.
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© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.