Corti's First AId Report: Burnout levels challenge healthcare professionals' ability to care for patients in Europe and the U.S.

Artificial Intelligence could be a lifeline but unsuccessful trials, limited opportunities, and lack of experience is holding healthcare professionals back

• Europe lagging behind the U.S. in terms of acceptance and adoption of AI and differences exist within the European markets
• U.S. healthcare professionals using AI are up to three hours every week correcting unreliable outputs
• Physicians and younger professionals are more likely to use AI, while women, nurses, and patient care staff are less likely to use the technology
• Report surveyed almost 2,500 healthcare professionals with contributors including Nvidia, Microsoft and Dedalus

NEW YORK, Feb. 6, 2025 /CNW/ -- New research from Corti and YouGov has revealed alarming burnout levels affecting healthcare professionals' (HCPs) ability to provide optimal patient care in the U.S. and key European markets (Denmark, France, Germany, and the UK). The research explores artificial intelligence's potential as a solution to support and augment patient interactions while assessing AI acceptance and adoption across each market.

According to the research, burnout levels are challenging healthcare professionals' ability to deliver care to patients – 41 percent report monthly burnout, 77 percent report feeling overwhelmed in their roles, and 24 percent think about leaving their role weekly due to overwhelming workloads. 23 percent experience burnout every week, impacting decision-making and patient care quality, and 26 percent say burnout affects their ability to provide consistent follow-up care.

Europe lagging behind
The HCPs surveyed were asked about their attitudes towards AI as a potential solution to the challenges they face and to augment tasks like note-taking and decision support. The U.S. is ahead of Europe with 38 percent of HCPs using AI in their day-to-day work, compared to 25 percent of HCPs in Germany and Denmark using AI tools at least once a month, and only 14 percent in the UK. 74 percent in the European study do support the use of AI in practice but 52 percent say they wouldn't feel confident using current AI solutions in their work. This lack of confidence has led to "pilot paralysis" of AI trials that fail to advance due to accuracy, cost, and integration challenges.

General-purpose vs. specialized AI
One finding in the U.S. version of the study revealed an emerging issue stemming from broader AI use in healthcare. The research found that workloads were being increased rather than reduced as a third of U.S. HCPs are spending up to three additional hours a week correcting it. This is impacting confidence levels, and while they may be behind in adoption, Europeans can learn from their U.S. counterparts and opt for apps built on specialized models over general purpose models for high-stakes environments like healthcare. Corti's specialized models are proven to be safer, faster and more accurate than general purpose AI models such as GPT-4.

"Just as we wouldn't let a medical student perform surgery without proper training, we shouldn't trust AI systems that haven't been specifically trained and validated for healthcare," said Frederik Brabant, MD and Chief Medical Strategy Officer at Corti. "When over half of healthcare professionals say they wouldn't feel confident using current AI solutions in their work, we know we need specialized solutions that can build sector confidence and safely meet healthcare's unique demands."

Trust and confidence achieved through usage
In spite of some of the later headwinds met with general AI adoption, the survey findings show that early adopters gain trust and confidence in AI through initial experiences, with 62 percent of those who have used AI in their work saying that they would feel confident using it again. Fear of errors (51 percent) and patient privacy (35 percent) are the most cited concerns by the HCPs surveyed showing that there is a significant need for continued education, more accuracy and for the right balance to be struck between innovation and integration.

"To break out of pilots and drive meaningful change, healthcare AI must be built on models that recognize trust isn't binary, it's earned over time," said Andreas Cleve, co-founder and CEO. "Success requires investing in AI that's been rigorously trained and validated for healthcare's unique demands. While quick builds can show quick wins, lasting trust comes from diligence, research and reliability. It only takes a few shortcuts and errors creeping in to erode trust and cost us the opportunity to transform care for millions."

Access is not a level playing field
There are also discrepancies between certain demographics using AI that need to be addressed. Physicians (35 percent) and younger HCPs (34 percent) are the most common early adopters, while nurses and patient care staff are the least likely to be using AI (14 percent). Male HCPs are more likely to use AI monthly (33 percent) compared to women (17 percent) – 69 percent of female HCPs have never used AI at work compared to 54 percent of male HCPs. Younger HCPs (18-24 years) have a higher monthly usage rate (32 percent) compared to those aged 55+ (16 percent).

Benefits beyond time savings
The survey findings show that demand is high for AI tools with 74 percent of HCPs in Europe keen to apply AI to at least one workplace challenge. While top demands among HCPs are for saving admin time (42 percent) and automating patient notes (29 percent), many physicians are keen for AI to go beyond just time saving to support decision making and diagnosis (32%) and provide diagnostic insights (25 percent) in future usage. When asked to imagine that AI could reduce their administrative workloads by up to 80 percent, 45 percent of HCPs said they would use the time back to focus on direct patient care.

The release of the study coincides with the launch of Corti's purpose-built AI infrastructure for healthcare. The introduction of three foundation and 20 expert models is the first of its kind, built on nine years of peer-reviewed research, supporting a wide range of administrative tasks - from notetaking and documentation to coding and quality assurance. - and factoring in more complex considerations for healthcare that only specialised models can prioritise. Together, Corti's foundation models form the most powerful and adaptable AI infrastructure in healthcare. Trained on hundreds of millions of hours of domain specific data, the result is faster, more concise, accurate, and cost-efficient AI for healthcare than GPT-4.

To learn more about Corti's healthcare AI infrastructure or download First AId: A Study on Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare, visit corti.ai . 

Report Methodology
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. The total sample size for the European study was 1,794 healthcare professionals in the UK, Denmark, France, and Germany. The U.S. study included 500 healthcare professionals. Fieldwork was undertaken in November 2024, and the survey was conducted online.

About Corti
Corti is a research and development company that specializes in state-of-the-art AI foundation models for healthcare. Corti's mission is to eliminate administrative hurdles in healthcare and life sciences and bring expert-level healthcare reasoning to every corner of the globe, driving down costs and improving the quality of care.

Corti's models integrate seamlessly into any healthcare application through Corti's SDKs and APIs, enabling vendors, providers, and payers to leverage safe, cutting-edge AI across extensive use cases in healthcare.

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Corti