Robots for surgeons? Surgeons for robots? Exploring the acceptance of robotic surgery in the light of attitudes and trust in robots

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Over the last century, technological progress has been tremendous, and technological advancement is reflected in the development of medicine. This research assessed attitudes towards surgical robots and identified correlations with willingness to participate in robotic surgery based on factors influencing trust in automated systems. METHOD: Using data from a survey, which included the Multi-dimensional Robot Attitude Scale (MdRAS) and a questionnaire consisting of attitude statements regarding the factors affecting trust in automated systems, the experiment assessed the attitudes of healthcare workers and potential patients towards surgery robots, and attempted to find a correlation between these attitudes, age, and gender. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Statistical evaluation of the responses (N = 197) showed that positive attitude towards surgical robots showed a high correlation with the willingness to participate in robotic surgery and gave the strongest correlations with the MdRAS utility and negative attitude towards robots subscales. For the assessment of willingness, the MdRAS subscales alone did not provide a strong enough correlation. All factors examined showed a significant correlation with participation. Having faith in the surgery robot, the propensity to trust technology, the designer's reputation, the ease of work that a surgical robot provides, positive experience with robots, and believing the surgeon is competent at operating the machine seemed to have been the most important positive correlations, while fear of errors gave the highest negative correlation. The healthcare workers and potential patients showed significant differences in the subscales of the questionnaire perceived risk and knowledge but no significant difference in the characteristics of the surgical robot. There was no difference in willingness to participate between the samples. Age did not show a significant correlation with the score achieved and willingness in any of the samples. Significant differences were found between male and female respondents, with men having more positive attitudes and being more likely to participate in surgeries using surgery robots than women. As a result, the research potentially sheds light on the factors that need to be considered when building trust in robotic surgery.

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