Doctors who used AI equipment lose their qualifications

Artificial intelligence is moving around the world, reaching even very specific professions. Medical equipment manufacturers are at the forefront of technological progress and are already producing devices with AI functions. Advanced functionality is supposed to help doctors, but sometimes it leads to ambiguous consequences.

Scientists decided to test whether the use of AI guidance during colonoscopy affects the diagnostic capabilities of doctors. The study Endoscopist deskilling risk after exposure to artificial intelligence involved 19 experienced endoscopists from four medical institutions in Poland. The adenoma detection rate (ADR) was measured, after which they performed procedures with an endoscope equipped with an AI assistant. A control measurement was performed 3 months later.

The results of the study were disappointing. Before the use of AI, doctors demonstrated a 28.4% tumour detection rate, while after using an endoscope with AI tips, their result was 22.4% - 6% worse.

Conclusions.

The experiment has shown that by shifting some responsibilities to modern technologies, professionals lose their skills and it will be harder for them to regain qualifications. This is not a catastrophe in itself, because if you take away the X-Ray machine and ultrasound from modern doctors, they will also show worse diagnostic results than the doctors who worked before they appeared. But there are also quite unambiguous results - it takes only 3 months of working with a convenient tool to deteriorate professional skills. Perhaps, we will face a story similar to an automatic transmission in cars - if a person has learned to work with equipment that does part of the work independently, it will be difficult to switch to a less automated system.