Attitude Survey toward Artificial Intelligence in Medicine among Japanese Medical Students

Objective: Medical schools all over the world need to include artificial intelligence (AI) as part of the medical education curriculum. This study aimed to assess first- and final-year Japanese medical students’ attitudes toward the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine. Methods: We conducted a web-based questionnaire survey regarding attitudes toward the use of AI in medicine on first- and final-year Japanese medical students. Responses were rated on a five-point Likert scale, from 5 = Strongly agree to 1 = Strongly disagree. Results: In total, 112 of 116 first-year and 101 of 124 final-year medical students responded to the survey (response rate: first-year students, 96.6 %, final-year students, 81.5 %). Both first- and final-year students expressed significantly positive attitudes toward the application of AI to imaging diagnosis. Regarding the theme of ‘AI and medical education’, final-year students showed significantly negative attitudes toward the use of AI for medical education compared with first-year students for lecture, clinical clerkship, administering exams (P < 0.05, each) but showed positive attitudes for learning mentor (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Our results indicate that final-year medical students in Japan prefer human-based medical education more than do first-year students. We should construct AI curriculum based on these attitudes in medical students.