Global output of clinical application research on artificial intelligence in the past decade: a scientometric study and science mapping.

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) has shown immense potential in the field of medicine, but its actual effectiveness and safety still need to be validated through clinical trials. Currently, the research themes, methodologies, and development trends of AI-related clinical trials remain unclear, and further exploration of these studies will be crucial for uncovering AI's practical application potential and promoting its broader adoption in clinical settings.

Objective: To analyze the current status, hotspots, and trends of published clinical research on AI applications.

Methods: Publications related to AI clinical applications were retrieved from the Web of Science database. Relevant data were extracted using VOSviewer 1.6.17 to generate visual cooperation network maps for countries, organizations, authors, and keywords. Burst citation detection for keywords and citations was performed using CiteSpace 5.8.R3 to identify sudden surges in citation frequency within a short period, and the theme evolution was analyzed using SciMAT to track the development and trends of research topics over time.

Results: A total of 22,583 articles were obtained from the Web of Science database. Seven-hundred and thirty-five AI clinical application research were published by 1764 institutions from 53 countries. The majority of publications were contributed by the United States, China, and the UK. Active collaborations were noted among leading authors, particularly those from developed countries. The publications mainly focused on evaluating the application value of AI technology in the fields of disease diagnosis and classification, disease risk prediction and management, assisted surgery, and rehabilitation. Deep learning and chatbot technologies were identified as emerging research hotspots in recent studies on AI applications.

Conclusions: A total of 735 articles on AI in clinical research were analyzed, with publication volume and citation counts steadily increasing each year. Institutions and researchers from the United States contributed the most to the research output in this field. Key areas of focus included AI applications in surgery, rehabilitation, disease diagnosis, risk prediction, and health management, with emerging trends in deep learning and chatbots. This study also provides detailed and intuitive information about important articles, journals, core authors, institutions, and topics in the field through visualization maps, which will help researchers quickly understand the current status, hotspots, and trends of artificial intelligence clinical application research. Future clinical trials of artificial intelligence should strengthen scientific design, ethical compliance, and interdisciplinary and international cooperation and pay more attention to its practical clinical value and reliable application in diverse scenarios.