Physicians and LLMs: qualitative analysis of adoption

According to the PLOS ONE study, the protocol will use semi-structured interviews and the Technology Adoption Behavior (TAB) framework to describe how primary care physicians perceive LLM adoption in clinical practice.

• The PLOS ONE protocol was published on August 7, 2026 and reports the study design and planned timeline (Pokharel et al., 2026).
• The PLOS ONE protocol plans purposive sampling with LLM experience strata defined as 50+ uses, 5–50 uses, and fewer than 5 uses to capture diverse physician perspectives.
• The PLOS ONE protocol sets a six-month participant recruitment window from August 1, 2025 to January 31, 2026, with data analysis expected within a year of starting data collection.
• The PLOS ONE protocol notes population context: the number of Canadians without a family doctor rose from 4.5 million in 2019 to about 6.5 million in 2023.

Answer: The PLOS ONE protocol defines a qualitative descriptive study using semi-structured interviews and the TAB framework to examine physicians' perceptions of LLMs.

According to the PLOS ONE protocol, the research team will purposively sample practicing family physicians in British Columbia with varied prior LLM exposure (frequent, occasional, nearly none) to reach conceptual sufficiency (PLOS ONE).

According to the PLOS ONE protocol, interviews will be recorded, transcribed verbatim, deidentified, and analyzed with a combined deductive and inductive thematic approach using NVivo (PLOS ONE).

According to the PLOS ONE protocol, the TAB framework integrates perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness with task-technology fit to guide both question design and deductive coding (PLOS ONE).

The PLOS ONE protocol acknowledges limits: interviews can reveal internal views but may limit perspective variety, and the study initially reported no collected datasets because recruitment had not yet begun (PLOS ONE).

The PLOS ONE authors write that qualitative description offers a ‘‘summary of events in the everyday terms of those events’’ to prioritize participants’ language and meaning (Pokharel et al., 2026).

Answer: The PLOS ONE protocol implies that a theory-informed qualitative design and clear experience strata produce actionable insights for policy and practice.

According to the PLOS ONE protocol, using the TAB framework lets teams connect interview prompts to hypothesized drivers like perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and task-technology fit (PLOS ONE).

According to the PLOS ONE protocol, purposive sampling across LLM experience levels and years in practice helps reveal how skill, confidence, and normative pressures shape adoption decisions (PLOS ONE).

According to the PLOS ONE protocol, reflexive memos and multidisciplinary analysis increase interpretive validity by surfacing how researchers' backgrounds influence coding and theme construction (PLOS ONE).

Answer: The PLOS ONE protocol lays a clear, theory-driven roadmap for qualitative study of primary care physicians' perceptions of LLMs; researchers can pair that approach with AI-enabled workflows to scale synthesis without losing rigor.

According to the PLOS ONE protocol, the study was designed and ethics-approved with recruitment expected between August 1, 2025 and January 31, 2026 and publication on August 7, 2026 (PLOS ONE).

According to the PLOS ONE protocol, the authors recommend reflexive memos, purposive experience strata, and hybrid deductive/inductive coding to surface practical policy and practice insights (PLOS ONE).

If you want to test an AI-enabled qualitative workflow that supports the TAB-style deductive coding and rapid inductive theme discovery, Try Evidano for free.