A recent study conducted by researchers at the Silesian Academy in Poland has revealed that the increasing use of artificial intelligence technologies in healthcare may lead to a decline in the skills of professionals in this sector, amid the rapid proliferation of these technologies in diagnostics and treatment.
The study focused on doctors performing early detection tests for bowel cancer through colonoscopy, a procedure during which polyps are detected and removed before they develop into full-blown tumors.
According to the researchers, computer-aided detection AI systems have enhanced doctors’ ability to identify suspicious cases, contributing to increased detection rates in centers that adopted these technologies.
However, the scientific team sought to determine whether continuous reliance on AI could negatively impact doctors’ performance when conducting examinations without technological assistance. To achieve this, they analyzed 1,442 colonoscopy procedures performed by doctors before and after the introduction of smart systems in some centers in 2021.
The results indicated a 6 percent drop in the rate of tumor detection after the adoption of AI, which the researchers regarded as an indicator of the potential decline in doctors’ manual diagnostic skills due to over-reliance on these technologies.
