4 ways ChatGPT can improve patient care, streamline tasks

Page Description (Up to 155 characters) The latest iteration of AI has the potential to save doctors time with administrative tasks, streamline patient records and assist in clinical diagnoses.

4 ways ChatGPT can streamline, improve your medical practice

Just hearing the terms “ChatGPT” and “AI” may make you cringe and prompt a wave of questions. What do I need to know about it? How can it help me? How will it change today’s technology, and in particular medicine?

According to IBM, artificial intelligence (AI) combines computer science and robust datasets to enable problem-solving. Chances are, you’re already using AI. For example, Siri and Alexa are forms of AI that understand speech and can quickly synthesize information and answer in a friendly, interactive way. Chatbots on Facebook or other websites are also a form of AI.

AI leaped forward another generation with GPT, pioneered in 2018 by OpenAI. GPT stands for “generative pre-trained transformer,” meaning it uses deep learning to generate human-like text.

OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022. Within two months, more than 100 million users experimented with it, making ChatGPT, which is free, the most quickly adopted piece of software ever created. By comparison, it took TikTok about nine months to reach 100 million users and Instagram more than two years, according to data from Sensor Tower, an app analysis firm.

What is ChatGPT?

According to OpenAI, ChatGPT interacts conversationally with users. Developers used vast quantities of content, such as websites, articles, books and social media to train ChatGPT. However, the software only has access to data beginning in 2021.

ChatGPT resembles doing a Google search, except you can ask detailed, lengthy, targeted questions. In response, it provides instantaneous, well-thought-out answers. And users don’t need to sort through links and piece together information like they would in a Google search.

Among a wide range of tasks, ChatGPT can:

Answer questions
Brainstorm
Give advice
Help make travel plans
Summarize a document
Tell jokes
Translate text
Write code
Write letters, resumes, reports, emails, songs, poems or any type of content

ChatGPT can create responses in the voice of a celebrity or historical person. And it can tailor responses to a particular age group or expertise level. For example, you could request, “Explain the Gettysburg Address in the voice of Abraham Lincoln at a level a middle schooler can understand.”

Here are 4 ways you can integrate ChatGPT into your medical practices today.

1. Streamline administrative tasks

ChatGPT can save you and your staff time by handling administrative tasks like writing letters for insurance approvals.

Recently, Doximity, a digital platform for medical professionals, rolled out a ChatGPT-based tool for doctors called DocsGPT. Though still in testing (beta), it helps streamline time-consuming administrative tasks by generating content, including:

CPT codes and reimbursement
Doctor notes for travel accommodations
Jury duty excuse letters for a patient
Letters of medical necessity
Out-of-office email suggestions

The company worked with doctors to fine-tune DocsGPT.

2. Generate patient-friendly communication

Patients fare better when well-informed about their condition or treatment. But unfortunately, unfamiliar clinical terms, test results, lab notes and imaging explanations make that a challenge, Even when the information makes perfect sense to healthcare experts.

To help patients understand, doctors and their staff can enter clinical information into ChatGPT about the patient’s condition, tests or treatment. Then they can ask the software to write a patient-friendly version of the same information without medical jargon and technical terms. A doctor can then share this simplified information with patients, providing information about their treatment options or instructions for medication, upcoming testing, or pre- or post-op situations.

Further, doctors can ask ChatGPT to predict patients’ questions about the information it created so providers can be prepared with answers. ChatGPT can also provide real-time suggestions and corrections while writing instructions for patients.

3. Succinctly summarize patient info

In the same way providers can use ChatGPT to capture patient instructions and information, it can organize records for providers after they’ve met with or talked to a patient.

According to Medical Economics, the technology can extract essential information from patient records, grouping data into family history, symptoms, current medication, potential allergies and lab results.

Providers can also dictate their notes to ChatGPT and ask it to summarize key details, including symptoms, diagnoses and treatments, so it’s ready for the next appointment.

4. Assist in clinical decisions

Doctors who’ve experimented with ChatGPT by feeding it patient’s notes, vitals, test results, imaging and other records have been surprised by the tool’s detailed analysis in reviewing a patient’s condition.

Based on patient information and its internal datasets, ChatGPT can give doctors input on a diagnosis and recommend treatment options. It can flag potential drug interactions and provide relevant clinical guidelines. The tool can also save clinicians time, reduce errors and improve patient care. However, as with any web resource, the provider should remain the ultimate expert.

While the world learns more about ChatGPT, OpenAI is already working to develop third-party plugins to enhance its use by pairing ChatGPT capabilities with other apps. It also offers a $20/month subscription service with a few more features, including faster response times.

Are there any drawbacks to using ChatGPT in healthcare?

There are many ethical considerations to address when implementing AI tools in any industry. Those that are most relevant to healthcare relate to privacy and safety. When using ChatGPT, you are feeding it data, and in healthcare, this data will often be confidential patient information. This can have huge implications for data protection.

In addition, it’s easy to trust the system to be 100% accurate all of the time. Remember to use ChatGPT to help — rather than do — and verify all work and information it provides. It’s one more tool to help your patients live the healthiest lives possible.

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