Assessment of Knowledge, Practice, Perception, and Expectations of Artificial Intelligence in Medical Care among Staff of a Tertiary Hospital

TL;DR

This study explores how hospital staff in Nigeria understand and perceive artificial intelligence in medical care.

Contribution

The study provides insights into AI knowledge, practices, and expectations among hospital staff in a Nigerian setting.

Findings

Most staff had basic knowledge but lacked in-depth understanding of AI.

Over 90% believed AI is essential in medicine despite not finding it helpful in their tasks.

Only 12.2% expected to acquire AI skills in the future.

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. AI technology has wide applications in biomedicine and has real practical benefits in many medical applications. The aim was to assess the knowledge, practice, perception, and expectations about AI technology among staff of Federal Medical Centre Makurdi Benue state, Nigeria.

This was a descriptive cross-sectional study over a period of three months from March to May 2023. The respondents were 18 years and above. The questionnaire was self-administered employing convenience sampling method to recruit responders. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 20.

A total of 384 respondents were recruited. The mean (SD) age of the respondents was 42.3(±11.1). Most were aged 41-50 (34.4%). There were more females (56% (215)). Most of the respondents (69% (264)) attested to knowing AI technology. However, the majority (87% (231)) of the 264 respondents who knew about AI technology did not have in-depth knowledge. Regarding practices, more than half of the respondents (55.3%) did not think AI makes their task easy. The majority of the respondents (90.3%) believed AI technology is essential in the medical field and most of the respondents (12.2%) were expecting to acquire AI technology skills in the future.

The in-depth knowledge of AI technology was low. Most of the staff thought that AI technology did not make their task easy although they believe AI is essential in medical field and they expect the acquisition of more skills on AI technology in future.

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