OpenAI’s generative artificial intelligence chatbot launched nearly two years ago. Have you used it? This article will explain ChatGPT in simple terms and provide five examples of how you could use ChatGPT as a doctor.
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is an AI chatbot that uses natural language processing to create human-like conversations. It can explain things, remember previous conversations, and even apologize if it makes a mistake. Chat GPT was created by OpenAI and launched in November 2022.
“GPT” stands for “Generative Pre-Trained Transformer,” which helps explain the technology behind the tool. In simple terms, here’s how it works:
- Generative: It can generate text, like writing an essay or answering questions.
- Pre-trained: Before being used for a specific task, developers trained ChatGPT on a massive amount of text from the internet. This training helps it learn grammar, facts, and even some common sense.
- Transformer: Transformers are a deep learning model used for tasks like translation and text summarization. The transformer is the architecture, or “brain,” of ChatGPT, which makes it good at understanding and generating text.
In simple terms, ChatGPT is like a super-smart text generator that has learned a lot from reading the internet. It’s like conversing with a knowledgeable friend who can type really fast!
The basic version of ChatGPT is free at chat.openai.com, but of course, it’s not the only tool of its kind. For example, there’s Google Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, and many others. While most AI-powered chatbots use large language models similar to ChatGPT’s, some rely on different technology.
Getting started with ChatGPT as a doctor
Now that you know a little about ChatGPT, what are its use cases? How can you use ChatGPT in your everyday work as a doctor or resident?
Before you begin, remember that ChatGPT uses new technology and is sometimes inaccurate. As a physician, it’s up to you to verify any information it provides. Always be cautious by independently staying up-to-date on medical knowledge and verifying data from trusted sources. Avoid entering protected health information into a chatbot to ensure you stay HIPAA compliant when using ChatGPT or similar tools for healthcare.
If you use AI tools to generate medical record text, add a note about your use. Always seek legal and ethical advice if you have doubts about safely and responsibly integrating AI into your medical practice.
Considering those precautions, here are five compelling ways physicians are using ChatGPT to improve and streamline their work.
1. Simulate medical consults
Imagine you’re an emergency room doctor faced with a complex case that requires input from a different specialist. ChatGPT can serve as a valuable virtual consultant.
You can engage the AI in a “curbside” consultation by asking about diagnoses, recommended labs and tests, and potential treatment options. This process can help you think through differential diagnoses and quickly summarize crucial information. For example, you might ask ChatGPT about the diagnostic criteria for a rare disease or the latest guidelines for managing a particular condition.
As you would when consulting another physician, think critically and verify any information you receive.
2. Check drug-drug interactions
Double-checking your knowledge of potential drug interactions is always a good idea. Physicians can input a list of a patient’s current medications, and the AI will provide feedback on potential conflicts, contraindications, or dosage adjustments.
3. Practice sensitive conversations
Healthcare is human, and doctors often need to have sensitive conversations with patients.
Let’s say you plan to discuss a mental health issue like anorexia nervosa with a patient. You could explain the context to ChatGPT and ask, “What emotions and concerns might someone have if they are experiencing anorexia nervosa?” or “What questions is this person likely to have for their doctor?”
AI chatbots are a great way to simulate conversations for practice. By using ChatGPT to understand the patient experience and develop effective communication strategies, you can approach sensitive conversations more empathetically and effectively.
4. Write text more efficiently
Physicians are bogged down by a growing burden of administrative tasks, but ChatGPT can help. You can ask the chatbot to generate just about any text you would type, including after-visit summaries, referral letters, and letters of medical necessity.
Always use AI-generated content as a starting point, making edits and personalizing the text as needed. Streamlining paperwork and communication could be the most powerful ChatGPT use case for doctors, potentially eliminating hours of administrative work and allocating more time to patient care.
5. Automate note-taking with an AI medical scribe
Two years after ChatGPT’s launch, there are now many software solutions that package ChatGPT’s underlying technology for specific professional use cases. AI medical scribes are a powerful new category of tools that use generative artificial intelligence to facilitate scribe-like capabilities in real time.
One example is Mobius MD’s Conveyor AI, a leading smartphone-based medical scribe that works with any EMR on any Mac or Windows computer. Conveyor AI listens to the doctor-patient interaction and drafts a full clinical note in less than 60 seconds.
If you’re a doctor and haven’t tried ChatGPT or similar tools, it’s worth dipping your toes in. Generative AI is quickly changing the way people work across industries, and healthcare is no exception. Becoming familiar with this technology now will help you stay current and adopt new AI tools when they inevitably enter your workplace.