The use of artificial intelligence in healthcare in South Africa: A scoping review

Introduction: The use of artificial intelligence (AI) transformed healthcare worldwide, including South Africa. With its potential to inform medical diagnostics, treatment planning, and healthcare management, AI has potential to address some of the many challenges faced by the South African healthcare sector. Aim: The aim of this scoping review will be to identify how AI is used in healthcare in South Africa. The specific objectives are to determine (a) what is the status of using AI in the South African healthcare? and (b) what applications of AI based innovations are currently in use in the health sector in South Africa? Methods and analyses: The review will follow the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology for scoping reviews and will be in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist. Peer reviewed articles written in English, published from 2020 to date will be sourced from various databases and search engines. Databases such as Medline/PubMed, Embase, and Google Scholar will be utilised for the full search. Relevant studies from the reference lists of retrieved articles will be hand searched from Google Scholar database. Analysis will be guided by the data extracted and may include frequency counts or thematic analysis to synthesise study findings. Contribution: The results will provide an overview of the status and application of the use of AI in the South African healthcare system. Ethics and dissemination: No ethics clearance was required. Results will be disseminated by publication in peer reviewed journals.