AI for Doctors—A Course to Educate Medical Professionals in Artificial Intelligence for Medical Imaging

Hedderich, Dennis M.; Keicher, Matthias; Wiestler, Benedikt; Gruber, Martin J.; Burwinkel, Hendrik; Hinterwimmer, Florian; Czempiel, Tobias; Spiro, Judith E.; Pinto dos Santos, Daniel; Heim, Dominik; Zimmer, Claus; Rückert, Daniel; Kirschke, Jan S.; Navab, Nassir

Successful adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical imaging requires medical professionals to understand underlying principles and techniques. However, educational offerings tailored to the need of medical professionals are scarce. To fill this gap, we created the course “AI for Doctors: Medical Imaging”. An analysis of participants’ opinions on AI and self-perceived skills rated on a five-point Likert scale was conducted before and after the course. The participants’ attitude towards AI in medical imaging was very optimistic before and after the course. However, deeper knowledge of AI and the process for validating and deploying it resulted in significantly less overoptimism with respect to perceivable patient benefits through AI (p = 0.020). Self-assessed skill ratings significantly improved after the course, and the appreciation of the course content was very positive. However, we observed a substantial drop-out rate, mostly attributed to the lack of time of medical professionals. There is a high demand for educational offerings regarding AI in medical imaging among medical professionals, and better education may lead to a more realistic appreciation of clinical adoption. However, time constraints imposed by a busy clinical schedule need to be taken into account for successful education of medical professionals.