Results showed that 77% of the doctors surveyed agreed that AI use should be subject to government or medical association oversight. Credit: Shutterstock / Rapeepat Pornsipak

Research conducted by US healthcare site, Medscape, has found that 81% of Canadian clinicians believe that a legal framework for artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine is essential, with a further 79% uncertain that current laws are equipped to hand the fast-moving technology.

The study, The Medscape Canada: Physicians and AI Report 2024, polled more than 700 clinicians across the country on the benefits and negatives of integrating AI into healthcare finding at least 51% of those respondents to be enthusiastic about the use of AI across the sector despite some strong concerns.

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Results showed that 77% of the doctors surveyed agreed that AI use should be subject to government or medical association oversight. The study also found that at present less than 10% of Canadian physicians are using AI in some form, though predominantly across the administrative space in spaces such as maintaining electronic health records and bed management.

An excerpt from the study reads: “Overall, Canadian physicians expressed mixed views on the impact of AI in hospitals and medical offices, though some applications of AI drew more positive responses than others. For instance, doctors felt more positively about AI use in administration and recordkeeping, scan interpretations and diagnoses but more negative about patient communications and malpractice risk management.

“Across the board, men were significantly more likely to express positive views about the impact of AI. Hospitals and specialists were particularly positive about AI use for scan interpretations.”

The same study also found that clinicians younger than 45 were conversely much more likely to feel “very apprehensive” about the implementation of AI. When it came to adopting the technology further 62% of respondents said that they would like their respective organisation to take a ‘wait and see’ approach before adopting new technologies, whilst only 4% suggested that it should be avoided all together.

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Across the medical device space new products that make use of AI are being released often. Earlier this month the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)  granted 510(k) clearance to Elucid’s PlaqueIQ, an AI-powered image analysis software designed to detect arterial plaque build-up. Elsewhere, Perimeter Medical Imaging AI has completed enrolment for the pivotal trial of its AI-assisted imaging technology, the Perimeter B-Series OCT system.