Physicians are using artificial intelligence (AI) for diagnoses and more, but a new study suggests they may quickly lose skills in the process. 

In the past few years, studies have described the many ways artificial intelligence tools have made doctors better at their jobs: It’s aided them in spotting cancer, allowed them to make diagnoses faster and in some cases, helped them more accurately predict who’s at risk of complications.

But new research suggests that collaborating with AI may have a hidden cost.

A study published in the Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology found that after just three months of using an AI tool designed to help spot precancerous growths during colonoscopies, doctors were significantly worse at finding the growths on their own.

The study began like many AI trials in medicine. Doctors at four endoscopy centers in Poland were given access to an AI tool that flagged suspicious growths while they performed a colonoscopy, drawing a box around them in real time. Several other large clinical trials have shown this technology significantly improves doctors’ detection rate of precancerous growths, a widely accepted indicator of an endoscopist’s performance.

Then, unlike in past studies, the researchers measured what happened when the tool was taken away.

In the three months before the technology was introduced, the doctors spotted growths in about 28% of colonoscopies. Now, the detection rate had fallen to about 22% – well below their baseline.

This was an observational study, which means it can’t answer whether the technology caused the decline in performance. There could be other explanations for the effect: For example, doctors performed about double the number of colonoscopies after the AI tool was introduced compared with beforehand, which might have meant they paid less attention to each scan.

Medical education experts and health care leaders are already considering how to combat the effect. Some health systems, like UC San Diego Health, have recently invested in simulation training, which may be used to help doctors practice procedures without AI to keep their skills sharp, said Dr Chris Longhurst, chief clinical and innovation officer at the health system.

[Francesco Cicolella/The New York Times]

This article originally appeared in The New York Times