Evaluation of Awareness, Perception and Opinions Toward Artificial Intelligence Among Pharmacy Students.

Abstract

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) helps to develop personalized medication therapy and regimens. It improves the patient care system. A cross-sectional study used and included pharmacy students, using validated survey questions. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate awareness, perception and opinion toward AI among pharmacy students. Design: This is a cross-sectional study (survey-based). Methods: A cross-sectional survey distribution among students in different levels of the college of pharmacy at National University (NU). The questions were classified to measure the variation of demographics, awareness, perceptions and opinions toward Artificial Intelligence (AI). Results: The results showed that more than 50% of pharmacy students are familiar with the uses of AI and know it's important in scientific research, 46.4% have a basic understanding of AI technologies. However more than 75% don't know the applications of AI used in pharmacy practice, 50.6 % don't know AI can support therapeutic diagnosis and 57 % don't know its importance in pharmacy education. A high perception was shown toward AI in facilitating pharmacy access to information (84.2%) and patients' access to the service (80.8%). In addition, 92% suggested that AI training is needed and 86.1 % recommended using AI in scientific research. The conclusion of this study identified the needs for awareness toward AI, and the important role of AI for education in pharmacy and health communities.