JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Despite excitement around Augmented Intelligence (AI) based tools in healthcare, there is work to be done before they can be equitably deployed. The absence of diverse patient voices in discussions on AI is a pressing matter and current studies have been limited in diversity. Our study inquired about the perspectives of patients of color on the use of their health data in AI by conducting a cross-sectional survey to 230 participants who were at least 18 years of age and identified as Black, Latinx, Indigenous, or Asian. The majority of participants were familiar with AI, however less participants understood the potential ways it could be used in dermatology. 70% of participants agreed that they trusted the healthcare system to treat their medical information with respect; however, this varied significantly by income. Only 64% of participants felt comfortable with their medical data being used to build AI tools, and 83% believed they should be compensated if their data is used to develop AI. To our knowledge, this is the first study focused on understanding opinions about health data use for AI in a non-white group of people, as similar studies have had limited diversity. It is important to capture the opinions of diverse groups because inclusion of their data is essential for building equitable AI tools; whoever, historical harms make inclusion challenging.