Mental Models of Smart Implant Technology: A Topic Modeling Approach to the Role of Initial Information and Labeling

Public understanding of medical innovations such as smart technology is decisive for its acceptance and implementation. Thus, it is important to understand what visions people develop of a technology based on initial information such as the label. We chose smart implants as an example and conducted qualitative interviews with 47 former implant patients to record their mental models after exposing them to the idea of smart implants through a vignette. Their answers were analyzed using LDA topic modeling. We derived five topics describing people's mental models considering the technology's functionalities, (dis)advantages as well as potential benefits and risks. The topics revealed that our respondents have often associated the idea of smart implants with artificial intelligence, which is a misconception regarding the introduced conceptualization. Thus, special attention has to be paid to the technology's labeling in communication efforts to ensure adequate understanding.