TY - JOUR A1 - Henckert, David A1 - Malorgio, Amos A1 - Schweiger, Giovanna A1 - Raimann, Florian J. A1 - Piekarski, Florian A1 - Zacharowski, Kai A1 - Hottenrott, Sebastian A1 - Meybohm, Patrick A1 - Tscholl, David W. A1 - Spahn, Donat R. A1 - Roche, Tadzio R. T1 - Attitudes of anesthesiologists toward artificial intelligence in anesthesia: a multicenter, mixed qualitative–quantitative study JF - Journal of Clinical Medicine N2 - Artificial intelligence (AI) is predicted to play an increasingly important role in perioperative medicine in the very near future. However, little is known about what anesthesiologists know and think about AI in this context. This is important because the successful introduction of new technologies depends on the understanding and cooperation of end users. We sought to investigate how much anesthesiologists know about AI and what they think about the introduction of AI-based technologies into the clinical setting. In order to better understand what anesthesiologists think of AI, we recruited 21 anesthesiologists from 2 university hospitals for face-to-face structured interviews. The interview transcripts were subdivided sentence-by-sentence into discrete statements, and statements were then grouped into key themes. Subsequently, a survey of closed questions based on these themes was sent to 70 anesthesiologists from 3 university hospitals for rating. In the interviews, the base level of knowledge of AI was good at 86 of 90 statements (96%), although awareness of the potential applications of AI in anesthesia was poor at only 7 of 42 statements (17%). Regarding the implementation of AI in anesthesia, statements were split roughly evenly between pros (46 of 105, 44%) and cons (59 of 105, 56%). Interviewees considered that AI could usefully be used in diverse tasks such as risk stratification, the prediction of vital sign changes, or as a treatment guide. The validity of these themes was probed in a follow-up survey of 70 anesthesiologists with a response rate of 70%, which confirmed an overall positive view of AI in this group. Anesthesiologists hold a range of opinions, both positive and negative, regarding the application of AI in their field of work. Survey-based studies do not always uncover the full breadth of nuance of opinion amongst clinicians. Engagement with specific concerns, both technical and ethical, will prove important as this technology moves from research to the clinic. KW - artificial intelligence KW - machine learning KW - anesthesia KW - anesthesiology KW - qualitative research KW - clinical decision support Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-311189 SN - 2077-0383 VL - 12 IS - 6 ER -