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Artificial Intelligence in Health Perspective on AI in eye care practices

However, health-care practitioners and stakeholders in English; studies published between 2018 and 2023;
often feel apprehensive and uncertain about adopting and survey-based studies that evaluated the perception
new and advanced technologies, due to various reported of ophthalmologists and optometrists on AI integration
reasons. 35-37 Hence, eye care professionals may have their in eye care. The exclusion criterion was studies involving
concerns and perceptions regarding the increasing use of AI AI application and implementation in eye care but
technology in eye care practices. The evolving perception did not include the perception of optometrists and
of AI in eye care necessitates a thorough evaluation of how ophthalmologists toward AI technology.
the technological advancements of AI can better align with The literature search yielded a total of 780 articles.
established norms and increase their acceptance within the From these, 304 duplicate articles were excluded from
field. the study. Subsequently, the abstracts of the remaining
Herein, this systematic review aims to investigate and 576 articles were screened based on the above selection
analyze the opinions of eye care professionals regarding criteria, resulting in 450 excluded articles. The full text of
the integration of AI in eye care practices. Through a the remaining 26 articles was further screened, resulting
comprehensive examination of existing literature, this in 18 excluded articles that lacked relevance and/or were
study offers a detailed understanding of the perspectives, not a survey-based study. The remaining eight studies were
concerns, and knowledge of eye care professionals in included and assessed accordingly. Figure 1 illustrates the
adopting AI technology in eye care practices. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and
Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) article selection process.
2. Methods
2.4. Data extraction
2.1. Systematic review approach
Relevant information was extracted from the eight included
I employed the narrative synthesis approach to summarize articles, that is, authors’ names, year of publication, sample
the findings from multiple studies in this systematic size, survey type, the objective of the study, primary
review to provide a thorough explanation of the opinions findings, and assessment tools (questionnaire type) used to
and perspectives of eye care professionals regarding assess the perceptions of eye care professionals toward the
AI integration in eye care practices. This approach was application of AI technology in eye care.
selected to point out important key findings and patterns
in the study’s subject area and to offer a comprehensive 3. Results
understanding of the various findings among the included
studies. Our findings on the included articles are summarized in
Table 1. 38-45 Collectively, the eye care professionals displayed
2.2. Literature search varying degrees of optimism toward the application of
A literature search was conducted between August and AI technology in eye care. They recognized the potential
December 2023 using the PubMed interface to access articles advantages of AI technology but had some doubts about
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in the MEDLINE database. The preference for utilizing only its diagnostic precision. Scanzera et al. conducted a
PubMed was due to its accessibility and its extensive collection survey among members of the American Academy of
of records relevant to the research topic. The search focused Optometry to determine their opinions, reservations, and
on studies related to the perception of ophthalmologists and readiness to use AI in clinical settings. According to the
optometrists on AI application in eye care and was not limited survey results, 66.8% of optometrists were familiar with
to articles published within any particular country, as AI AI, suggesting the increasing awareness and interest in AI
technology had been increasingly applied in eye care practices technology advancements. Some optometrists presented
across various countries. I used the Medical Subject Headings opposing viewpoints on AI, and 25.1% of them were
(MeSH) search strategy to identify original survey-based concerned that AI could potentially replace them. Most
studies conducted among optometrists and ophthalmologists, respondents (72.0%) indicated that AI could improve
using the following keywords: “ophthalmologist perception of optometric practices, but 53.0% of respondents had doubts
artificial intelligence,” “perception of artificial intelligence in about the technology’s diagnostic accuracy. In summation,
optometry,” and “applications of artificial intelligence in eye the opposing responses suggest that AI technology
care.” development and implementation in eye care should be
further assessed, particularly the accuracy of AI-assisted
2.3. Study selection diagnosis.
I established selection criteria for the screening process. Gunasekeran et al. comprehensively evaluated the
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The inclusion criteria were as follows: articles published perspectives of ophthalmologists regarding AI in managing

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2024) 67 doi: 10.36922/aih.2809