AI in Surgery: Coordination, Accountability, and Trust

There is a lack of foundational knowledge about medical staff’s experiences of working with AI.

This project focuses on surgical practice, an area rapidly affected by the AI development, but one that has fallen behind on research.

To enable an in-depth study of emergent AI/human collaboration in surgical practice in Sweden, the project spans across 4-years.

The project applies ethnographic research methods, generating rich qualitative and in-depth data through observations and interviews.

The project is interdisciplinary, connecting three disciplines: (1) sociology (in terms of theory), (2) anthropology (in terms of method), and (3) medicine (in terms of empirical material). The purpose is to generate knowledge about key factors affecting AI/human relations.

With such knowledge, we can better understand what influences medical staff’s acceptance of AI and learn how to better integrate AI into practices.

The project contributes with novel empirical insights, and its results benefit healthcare organizations, medical staff, and AI developers. Such knowledge is required in the development of socially sustainable AI systems for future clinical practices. The project offers theoretical progression directed towards sociology.

The two researchers’ combined experiences/expertise in (a) theory development in sociology, (b) ethnographic research methods, (c) medical empirical environments, and (d) healthcare networks (access already established) – ensures the project´s feasibility.