A recent study by researchers from the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Taipei Medical University Shuang Ho Hospital suggests that AI chatbot ChatGPT could provide easy to understand, scientifically accurate, and generally satisfactory answers to patient questions regarding colonoscopy.
ChatGPT, developed by the San Francisco-based OpenAI, is a natural language processing tool that enables individuals to have personalized conversations with an AI bot which is capable of providing detailed and accurate responses to whatever queries it is posed.
In this first-time study, the researchers took eight common questions regarding colonoscopy from the websites of three randomly-selected top hospitals for gastroenterology and gastrointestinal surgery. They had ChatGPT answer the questions twice and observed that the similarity between ChatGPT answers and those on hospital websites was extremely low (0%-16%). To determine the quality of the ChatGPT responses, four gastroenterologists rated 36 pairs of questions and answers on a seven-point Likert scale according to their understandability, scientific accuracy and satisfaction with the answers.
The gastroenterologists scored the ChatGPT answers highly and similarly to non-AI answers, with some AI scores even higher than non-AI scores. Furthermore, they correctly identified AI-generated answers only 48% of the time. Publications about ChatGPT on PubMed appear to have significantly increased from February 3 to April 14, 2023. It could be a transformational innovation in how medical information is created and accessed by patients, as well as a time saver for healthcare professionals.
OpenAI is a leading artificial intelligence research laboratory founded by Tesla CEO, Elon Musk. The company focuses on developing open source technologies related to artificial intelligence to facilitate research initiatives in other fields. The company has worked with various tech giants, such as Google and Microsoft, to build better AI technologies. One of their most popular developments is the ChatGPT which is used for the aforementioned study.
The leader of this study was Tsung-Chun Lee from the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Taipei Medical University Shuang Ho Hospital in New Taipei City, Taiwan. He cites potential benefits such as improved efficiency of care, cognitive intense patient interactions and also the possibility of medical information being generated through AI. He adds that several challenges still remain, such as the lack of clinical evidence in constructing AI-generated answers. He believes that with properly supervised, accredited, and regularly monitored AI, medical information can be provided in an accurate and easily understandable manner to patients undergoing colonoscopy.
