Healthcare Professional Association Agency in Preparing for Artificial Intelligence: A Multiple-Case Study of...

As artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly integrated in healthcare, it is incumbent on healthcare professional associations (HPAs) to assist their memberships in preparing for related change. HPAs hold a unique role in establishing the socio-cultural, normative, and regulative elements of healthcare professions. An exploratory multiple-case study approach was employed to consider how, when faced with AI as a disruptive technology, HPAs engage in sense-making and legitimation of the change in order to support their membership in preparing for future practice. The Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists, Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology, Canadian Association of Radiologists, and Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists were selected as cases. Data collection involved key-informant interviews and document review, anticipated impact of AI on care and practice, reflections on perceptions of the professional membership and the role and actions of the HPA in influencing such perceptions and work. Concept coding allowed for inductive framing of individual case narratives and subsequent cross-case analysis. Eighteen interviews were conducted and documents spanning 2013 to 2020 were reviewed. Eleven coding categories and 25 subconcepts were identified, spanning perceived impact of AI, perspectives on prevalent mindsets, roles of HPAs in preparing their membership, including changing education needs. The HPAs studied engaged in work to support AI consideration in varying ways, with perceived roles in education, advocacy, and leadership. Emergent trends across the four HPAs suggested three factors that might influence engagement; factors related to the organization, those related to the profession, and those related to the innovation in question. All HPAs acknowledged AI's impact on practice in medical imaging and radiation medicine, while some saw it as more of a disruptive force and assigned it greater priority in the organizations. Conceptualizations of the potential threat to the profession and the HPA's role in supporting members in navigating that future landscape were also key insights. This research suggests how healthcare professions are engaging at the macro level in the implementation and normalization work related to AI, and sheds light on nuanced perspectives on AI of groups that would interface with it.