Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Sep 5, 2024
Date Accepted: May 2, 2025
Knowledge and Perceptions of Artificial Intelligence among Medical Students in Morocco: A Cross-sectional Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
AI is gaining more and more ground in the field of medicine. The significant benefits it brings make it indispensable to future medical practice. Successful use of these tools depends on practitioners' mastery and acceptance.
Objective:
The aim of this study is to describe Moroccan medical students' knowledge and perception of AI.
Methods:
A cross-sectional, observational study was conducted from February to May 2023 at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Agadir, Morocco. All undergraduate medical students from the 1st to the 7th year were eligible, excluding graduates’ students. A snowball sampling method was used, with a calculated minimum sample size of 385. To account for potential missing data, and given the target population size of 1150, the sample size was increased by 50%. Data were collected through a validated online questionnaire and analyzed using JAMOVI 2.3.6, with significance set at p<.05. 580 responses were received.
Results:
Only 27% of students were familiar with AI terms, with a higher rate of familiarity among tach-savvy students (P<.001). The majority of students (83%) perceive AI as a partner rather than a competitor and are therefore convinced that it will revolutionize medicine (84%), with greater familiarity among undergraduates (P=.002) and tech-savvy students (P<.001). Almost all students (94%) believe that AI will improve learning conditions. More than half of students (57%) believe that certain specialties will be replaced by AI. Medical students' knowledge of artificial intelligence is still limited, but their awareness of the potential impact of this technology on future practice and their openness to its integration into the medical curriculum constitute a promising basis for the successful implementation of these new concepts in our healthcare system.
Conclusions:
Moroccan medical students have limited AI knowledge but recognize its potential to transform medicine. They view AI positively and support its integration into medical education, indicating a need for improved AI training in the curriculum.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© 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.