Experts have dubbed the marriage of artificial intelligence (AI) and healthcare as “the future of medicine”. A recent study indicates that AI chatbot ChatGPT is capable of answering patient inquiries at a higher level of quality and with more empathy than physicians. This chatbot could offer physicians a step in the right direction to help deal with the incoming barrage of electronic patient communications.
The team evaluated ChatGPT’s potential application by looking at exchanges between patients and doctors on the ‘r/AskDocs’ subreddit on Reddit–a forum where members post their medical questions and doctors respond. The responses from verified doctors and ChatGPT were presented to a panel of licensed healthcare professionals to assess their relevancy and empathy without knowing which response came from which source. The panel reported that they preferred ChatGPT’s response 79 percent of the time, rating them as “higher quality” and “more empathetic”.
This is not the first time ChatGPT’s relevancy in clinical medicine has been studied. In fact, a study published early in 2020 revealed that the AI had the capability of passing the three parts of the US Medical Licensing Exam. Even though the ability to pass the exam is impressive, it pales in comparison to the goal of providing accurate medical advice with a human touch.
ChatGPT is built on a neural network architecture, developed by OpenAI. While ChatGPT is not in any danger of replacing physicians anytime soon, it could offer physicians a valuable tool to help alleviate some of their communications burden in the era of pandemic and virtual healthcare . Lead author John Ayers of the University of California San Diego (UCSD) said: “The opportunities for improving healthcare with AI are massive. AI-augmented care is the future of medicine.”
The company mentioned in the article is OpenAI, founded in 2015, who are using advanced artificial intelligence techniques to develop technologies and services that will help make smart machines both useful and trustworthy. OpenAI is a leader in understood and modeled reliable AI which can be seen through ChatGPT, one of their products.
The person mentioned in the article is Professor Eric Leas of the University of California San Diego (UCSD). He is a public health expert and one of the paper authors of the study. Professor Leas stated that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, access to care was easier for patients which in turn caused a growing communications burden for physicians. He hoped to evaluate ChatGPT’s ability to alleviate this burden.
The article mentions AI-augmented healthcare, dubbed “the future of medicine” by experts. AI, embodied in the form of ChatGPT has been shown to answer patient queries more effectively and empathetically than physicians. Not only that, but it could prove invaluable to physicians in helping them to cope with the high volume of digital patient communication arising due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While AI cannot replace doctors just yet, this technology could significantly help physicians in their efforts to provide better and empathetic healthcare.
