Attitude of Sri Lankan radiography undergraduates towards artificial intelligence used in medical imaging

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the attitude of radiography un-dergraduates in Sri Lanka towards artificial intelligence (AI) on medical imaging. An electronic questionnaire designed by Google forms survey administration software was used for data collection. The questionnaire consisted of different sections to evaluate demographic status of the participants, attitude, practice and knowledge related to AI on medical imaging. A total of 168 students responded to the questionnaire. The majority of them (64.3%) were female. Most of the respondents (92.3%) stated that they have practiced plain radiography imaging mo-dality during their clinical training. Around 67.9% respondents were aware about the AI based applications used in medical imaging. How-ever, the majority of respondents (51.17%) opined that AI will drastical-ly change and revolutionize medical imaging tools and methods in a foreseeable future. Most of the respondents (64.29%) believed that the use of AI based applications will make a radiographer’s duties more technical in the next 5-10 years. More than two thirds of the respond-ents (73.8%) stated their interest to involve any research on AI based techniques. In sub group analysis, there is a significant difference (p>0.05) of attitude between male and female respondents while no significant difference (p<0.05) of attitude between academic years. In conclusion responders showed a favorable attitude on AI which revolu-tionize medical imaging making radiographers duties more technical. It led to a strong demand to include AI technologies in both undergradu-ate and postgraduate training. Therefore, it is essential to take the lead in educating radiography undergraduate students about these emerg-ing technologies in the field of medical imaging and how to work effi-ciently with those technologies.