Interaction between AI and healthcare professionals

Although healthcare professionals can make good use of AI tools, there are some risks to the use of new automated tools in general that also apply to these AI tools.

One of these risks is deskilling. By getting used to having an automated tool to perform a certain task for a long time, people tend to lose the skills they don’t use anymore. Eventually, new professionals do not even get taught that skill anymore, since it is deemed unnecessary. Although this is quite a natural thing to happen, it can also become a risk when the automated tools are not available anymore for whatever reason.

Another challenge is the risk of over-reliance. This also happens when a healthcare professional is using the same tool for a long time. If the tool has always worked perfectly and provided the right decisions, the healthcare professional could start relying on it blindly, without thinking critically about the results that are shown.

The examples in the video show that both deskilling and over-reliance can potentially lead to dangerous situations, and thus have to be considered in the implementation of AI in healthcare.

Which of the two consequences do you think is more concerning? Why do you think so? Share your thoughts in the discussion section.