A multinational study on artificial intelligence adoption: Clinical implementers’ perspectives

Abstract

Background: Despite substantial progress in AI research for healthcare, translating research achievements to AI systems in clinical settings is challenging and, in many cases, unsatisfactory. As a result, many AI investments have stalled at the prototype level, never reaching clinical settings. Objective: To improve the chances of future AI implementation projects succeeding, we analyzed the experiences of clinical AI system implementers to better understand the challenges and success factors in their implementations. Methods: Thirty-seven implementers of clinical AI from European and North and South American countries were interviewed. Semi -structured interviews were transcribed and analyzed qualitatively with the framework method, identifying the success factors and the reasons for challenges as well as documenting proposals from implementers to improve AI adoption in clinical settings. Results: We gathered the implementers’ requirements for facilitating AI adoption in the clinical setting. The main findings include 1) the lesser importance of AI explainability in favor of proper clinical validation studies, 2) the need to actively involve clinical practitioners, and not only clinical researchers, in the inception of AI research projects, 3) the need for better information structures and processes to manage data access and the ethical approval of AI projects, 4) the need for better support for regulatory compliance and avoidance of duplications in data management approval bodies, 5) the need to increase both clinicians’ and citizens’ literacy as respects the benefits and limitations of AI, and 6) the need for better funding schemes to support the implementation, embedding, and validation of AI in the clinical workflow, beyond pilots. Conclusion: Participants in the interviews are positive about the future of AI in clinical settings. At the same time, they propose numerous measures to transfer research advances into implementations that will benefit healthcare personnel. Transferring AI research into benefits for healthcare workers and patients requires adjustments in regulations, data access procedures, education, funding schemes, and validation of AI systems.