Artificial Intelligence in medicine: a bibliometric study Paulo André da Silva Corrêa, Errol Fernando Zepka Pereira Junior

Abstract

Background: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a field of science in which computers and machines are created and designed to reproduce human reasoning in an autonomous and intelligent way, making it possible to do things that require intelligence when done by humans. Recently, science has witnessed a significant growth in the implementation of AI in the health area, presenting a revolution in Medicine and health care worldwide, which was promoted by the advancement of information technologies (IT), of which AI emerges as a powerhouse. Objective: Thus, the objective of the present study was to examine the research carried out on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Medicine. Methods: For this, a bibliometric study was developed, using the Scopus bibliographic database for data collection. The data were analyzed according to: 1) thematic area; 2) main authors; 3) main journals; 4) keywords; 5) most cited articles; 6) documents by country/territory; and 7) the period of publication. Furthermore, the three main bibliometric laws were followed, namely Lotka's Law, Bradford's Law, and Zipf's Law. Final considerations: The study identified the strong presence of AI in the field of Medicine, which demonstrates the importance that digital technologies have been having on human beings, since several AI tools are being used to assist research on the health of individuals, support clinical decision-making, the use of patient data to serve as a basis for prevention, diagnosis, treatment of diseases, etc., which can enable improvements in patient health. In addition, the study demonstrated the strong presence of the United States in terms of the number of publications on AI and Medicine. Furthermore, it was possible to observe a jump in the number of works published since 2021. For future research, an analysis is suggested that addresses more carefully the advantages or disadvantages of using AI technologies in Medicine, as well as tools that are being used and what they are being used for, since AI has numerous potential applications in Medicine.