(019) Sentiments towards technology adoption amongst attending otolaryngologists at a tertiary care center

Introduction: Amidst ongoing technological innovation and advancement, it is important that healthcare adopt new tools to increase efficiency and efficacy of clinical medicine. The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of otolaryngology attendings toward technology adoption in the medical setting.

Methods: A cross-sectional study investigating otolaryngology attending attitudes towards technology adoption was completed by administering 10-question validated survey to otolaryngology attendings in the Northwell Health System. Attendings from all career stages with a position at Long Island Jewish Hospital, Lenox Hill Hospital, and/or Cohen Children’s Medical Center and who took call were recruited for the study. The survey included 9 questions written on a Likert-scale scale about affinity for technology interaction and one question about age. Likert response categories were assigned a value, 1-6, and question valence was aligned by reverse-coding negatively valanced Likert response categories. A total scaled score was created from summing each participant’s survey responses. Total scores were divided evenly into 3 categories and labeled as “Technology Avoider,” “Technology Neutral” or “Technology Adopter.” Descriptive statistics were computed using Microsoft Excel.

Results: The study included 19 attendings from early, mid, and late career stages. All scaled scores were above 16 indicating that otolaryngology attendings were either Technology Neutral (n=11) or Technology Adopters (n=8). The average ATI survey score was 36.6 (6.6) which placed the average of all attendings in the Technology Adopter category.

Conclusions: Attitudes of otolaryngology attendings across various career stages indicate that clinicians are open adopting and exploring new technologies. The field of otolaryngology remains a promising field to adopt these technologies in the clinical setting. Incorporation of tools such as AI, augmented reality, and telecollaboration has the potential to facilitate more efficient, equitable, and streamlined patient care and clinical training.