AI FLUENCY FOR FUTURE SURGEONS: A COST-EFFECTIVE, SCALABLE STRATEGY FROM A PUBLIC TEACHING HOSPITAL drpremk512@gmail.com

 

AI FLUENCY FOR FUTURE SURGEONS: A COST-EFFECTIVE, SCALABLE STRATEGY FROM A PUBLIC TEACHING HOSPITAL

1

India

Oral or Poster

As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly integrates into healthcare, surgical training must evolve to prepare residents not only for AI-assisted surgery but also for AI-driven audit, clinical governance, and administrative decision-making. However, low-resource institutions often lack access to advanced digital infrastructure. This study evaluates a cost-effective AI awareness module for surgical residents at a public teaching hospital in India.

A prospective educational intervention was conducted at Victoria Hospital between October 2024 and April 2025. Twelve final-year general surgery residents participated in a structured, three-week AI fluency program. The module included: Basic AI concepts and relevance to healthcare (via curated open-access online content), Use-case discussions (AI in surgical audits, complication tracking, triage, operative scheduling), and Reflection sessions on how AI may influence future surgical practice. Knowledge and perception were assessed using a structured questionnaire and AI awareness score (max 100) before and after the module.

The mean AI awareness score improved from 34.2 to 72.6 (p < 0.01). Participants reported increased confidence in understanding AI applications in surgical audit, data-driven quality improvement, and hospital resource planning. Faculty noted improved engagement in discussions on postoperative outcome metrics and data logging.

Even without advanced tools or hands-on coding, AI fluency can be meaningfully introduced into public sector surgical training. This low-cost model is scalable and relevant, equipping future surgeons to engage intelligently with AI systems that will shape both operative and administrative domains.