Willingness to undergo autonomous robotic surgery in Jordanian medical students: a national multicenter cross-sectional survey.

Published in Journal of robotic surgery. Abstract: Surgical robots in clinical use operate under continuous human control, yet research systems now perform surgical tasks on their own. Patient willingness may limit adoption, and to our knowledge no study has measured willingness across defined levels of autonomy while holding performance constant. To estimate the willingness of Jordanian medical students to undergo high-autonomy robotic surgery with immediate surgeon oversight and to quantify how willingness changes as autonomy increases. We conducted a national, multicenter, cross-sectional online survey of a convenience sample of undergraduate medical students at eight Jordanian medical schools between 31 August and 17 September 2026. After a standardized vignette, students rated their willingness to undergo their own operation on a five-point scale under five arrangements, from surgeon-controlled robotic surgery (stage 1) to artificial intelligence (AI) operating with no surgeon in the room and none immediately available (stage 5), with regulatory approval and outcome equivalence held constant. The prespecified primary endpoint was willingness at stage 4 (the AI performs the whole operation while a surgeon in the room can take over); the gradient across stages was a prespecified secondary analysis. Cumulative link mixed models accounted for repeated ratings. Among five hundred seventy-four students (59.6% female), 39.7% (95% CI 35.8 to 43.8) reported willingness at stage 4. The proportion willing fell from 76.0% at stage 1...