ChatGPT is a chatbot that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to echo intuitive human conversation. In the healthcare arena, ChatGPT could be applied to a variety of areas, including automating patient records and drafting medical reports.
According to a Yahoo! Finance article, ChatGPT garnered an impressive 1 million users in its opening week alone, some of whom are healthcare professionals seeking to incorporate new methods of automation into medical management.
One potential use for ChatGPT suggested in the article could be summarizing patient records and information. For example, ChatGPT could serve as a digital assistant to physicians by performing various administrative functions like gathering patient-record information or categorizing patient data by family history, symptoms, lab results, possible allergies, et cetera. With time spent efficiently gathering and organizing data, ChatGPT would ensure that information is easily accessible for physicians and staff, thereby allowing them to expedite the process of assessing patients’ needs.
ChatGPT Has Potential to Enhance CDS Systems
When it comes to patient outcomes and treatment decisions, clinical decision support (CDS) systems have traditionally been a huge help for physicians. ChatGPT could potentially enhance CDS systems, resulting in both improved patient outcomes and treatment decisions.
Evolved from the GPT-3 language model developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT offers AI-powered conversational systems that—according to founder and CEO of the global AI and digital health platform Babylon, Ali Parsa, MD—will give patients more personalized and clinically accurate answers. An avid supporter of digital healthcare, Dr. Parsa views ChatGPT as a valued step toward allowing physicians to focus less on administrative tasks and more on patient care. He believes that patient-doctor communication should initially occur via chat. If more communication is required, Dr. Parsa suggests moving on to virtual care before meeting in person, thereby maximizing a physician’s time.
ChatGPT Can Help Free Up Time for Physicians & Staff
According to a study published in the journal, Missouri Medicine, physicians and their staff dedicate approximately 16.4 hours a week to dealing with insurance approvals, significantly impacting the amount of time they can give to actual medical care. Dr. Parsa notes that ChatGPT automates administrative functions like appointment scheduling and clinical-consultation summarization, freeing physicians and staff from these administrative obligations. ChatGPT can even be trained to do tasks like create prior-authorization letters or write appeals for denied claims.
It is crucial to note, however, that ChatGPT is a work in progress and is not without flaws. For instance, it may falsely provide “factual” information or give biased responses. Nonetheless, it has many potential upsides. For instance, ChatGPT can also be a useful tool for keeping patients up-to-date throughout their course of treatment. Whereas clinical notes are traditionally documented in technical language that may be challenging for patients to decipher, Dr. Parsa mentions that ChatGPT could simplify medical language so that patients can better understand medical notes, prescriptions, and other key information relative to their treatment.
Physician’s Weekly | April 27, 2023