{
  "abstract": "Background With the increased adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in healthcare, 1 and chatbots being sought out more frequently by parents/carers as well as children and young people (CYP) with chronic conditions,2 3 it is important to understand healthcare professionals’ (HCPs’) perceptions and attitudes towards families utilising GenAI to navigate their child’s healthcare.Aim The current study explored HCPs’ views on families utilising GenAI for hands-on tasks such as AI-assisted injection administration, symptom monitoring, and physiotherapy exercise guidance.Method Paediatric rheumatology HCPs were recruited from 14 hospital trusts, and included a range of professionals such as consultants, nurses, physiotherapists, psychologists and other professions. Seven focus groups were held virtually and presented 3 vignettes, with transcripts analysed qualitatively using NVivo. Inductive thematic analysis by Braun and Clarke 4 was used to code the data and identify the themes.Results A total of 37 HCPs (aged 25-65 years, 83.8% female) participated in the study with an average of 11 years in paediatric rheumatology ( SD = 9.19). Six main themes were identified: (1) Opportunities of AI to benefit patient care; (2) Disadvantages and challenges (including anxiety by drawing out certain tasks such as subcutaneous injections); (3) Risks, need for evaluation and safety netting (including HCP co-design); (4) Different approaches of utilising AI (as either a stand-alone tool, or an aide to complement clinical care); (5) Role of HCPs and the need for human evaluation (including concerns regarding the threat to replace roles); (6) Ensuring inclusivity and accessibility.Conclusion HCPs agreed that GenAI has the potential to support families caring for CYP with rheumatological conditions, provided risks are mitigated and guardrails are in place. As a nurse concluded that considering how AI is advancing rapidly, it’s important to ‘embrace the times,…. work alongside it, [and] keep using safety netting [around it]’.Acknowledgements for Funding or Support This study is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) [ACAF 302864]. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.References Laranjo L, Dunn AG, Tong HL, Kocaballi AB, Chen J, Bashir R, Surian D, Gallego B, Magrabi F, Lau AY, Coiera E. Conversational agents in healthcare: a systematic review. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 2018 Sep;25(9):1248–58. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocy072Seo W, Kim YH, Kim JE, Fan MT, Ackerman MS, Choi SW, Park SY. Enhancing pediatric communication: the role of an AI-driven chatbot in facilitating child-parent-provider interaction. In Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2025 Apr 26 (pp. 1-16). https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713134Lau CW, Kupiec K, Livermore P. Exploring the acceptance and opportunities of using a specific generative AI chatbot to assist parents in managing pediatric rheumatological chronic health conditions: mixed methods study. JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting 2025 Jul 1;8(1):e70409. https://doi.org/10.2196/70409Braun V, Clarke V. Conceptual and design thinking for thematic analysis. Qualitative Psychology 2022 Feb;9(1):3.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Klaudia Kupiec"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "UCL Interaction Centre, Department of Computer Science and Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Sabina Sweet"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Polly Livermore"
    }
  ],
  "title": "98 Healthcare professionals’ perspectives of Generative AI in supporting hands-on care in paediatric rheumatology: a qualitative study",
  "uid": "31c315d8-d80e-56d3-a25e-2a78d307c532"
}