Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Clinical Practice – Insights from a Modified Delphi Study with Human Factors Experts and Healthcare Professionals

Human Factors and Ergonomics (HF/E) offers essential expertise for understanding and optimizing interactions between humans, technology, and clinical work systems. Despite the growing utilization of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare, there is a lack of research on its real-world implementation and impact on patient safety, as well as a gap in the inclusion of HF/E considerations in the development, regulation, and implementation of AI. This study aimed to explore HF/E considerations for AI integration in healthcare as well as key risks and opportunities for patient safety related to AI use. This exploratory study used a modified Delphi approach, including semi-structured interviews with 10 HF/E experts across different nationalities, followed up with an online survey involving 37 participants, encompassing HF/E and healthcare professionals. This process resulted in a collection of 22 recommendations, emphasizing human-centered design, early and continuous stakeholder involvement, and ongoing system monitoring. In addition, the study identifies risks and opportunities for patient safety associated with AI implementation, highlighting areas that warrant further research and careful attention in future applications. As the study examined AI broadly to identify cross-cutting principles, its scope may have limited the depth of technology-specific insights. Nevertheless, the findings reinforce the importance of HF/E principles and demonstrate their relevance for guiding the integration of emerging AI technologies in healthcare. As AI capabilities continue to advance, integrating HF/E throughout the entire AI lifecycle will remain essential to ensuring its safe, effective, and sustainable use in healthcare.