Infusion of medical expert systems in emergency medical services.

摘要

This study explores Kaplan's (2001) paradox, which suggests that despite its proven effectiveness, medical clinicians are reluctant to adopt decision-making technologies as part of day-to-day practices. An in-depth literature review of relevant studies of medical expert systems (MES), including artificial intelligence (AI), artificial neural networks (ANN) and decision support systems (DSS), supported Kaplan's claim and proposed theories to explain the reluctance to accept these technologies in varied medical fields. This study explores the phenomenon through the perspectives and experiences of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) industry, which unlike the medical fields included in prior studies, has demonstrated a high level of positive adoption, acceptance, diffusion and infusion of MES. In EMS, MES technologies are routinely used to make decisions on pre-hospital prioritization, triage and treatment protocols. This study uses a qualitative, phenomenological interview approach to explore the experiences EMS dispatchers, paramedics and management from 2 independent EMS organizations in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, that both have over a decade experience with MES technologies. The findings suggest the EMS industry, like other medical domains, demonstrates initial reluctance to accept new technologies, but organizational empathy and EMS industry support and innovation have resulted in constant improvements of the technology which has ultimately resulted in a higher quality of patient care.