What's strange is that although doctors have been reluctant to adopt AI like MYCIN, the pace of adoption for other innovations like new surgeries, drugs, and implantable devices is actually quite rapid. So I don't think doctors reject new methods in general.
I think the hidden factor here is the business model. A new surgery makes money for a hospital, which provides a countervailing force to the caution you mention.
A new diagnosis algorithm may lose the hospital money, so what is the force that is going to push for its adoption?
The fee for service model prevalent in healthcare today is certainly one reason. However there is a general mistrust of algorithms. Here's a paper that documents what hey call Algorithm Aversion: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2466040
Note that there are exceptions and this can be overcome.
I think the hidden factor here is the business model. A new surgery makes money for a hospital, which provides a countervailing force to the caution you mention.
A new diagnosis algorithm may lose the hospital money, so what is the force that is going to push for its adoption?