The doctor is out, but it's OK. ChatGPT can answer your questions ...
A recent study shows us that artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT could improve patients' experience by providing responses to their healthcare questions that are more accurate and empathetic than answers from human doctors.
In a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, written responses from human physicians and those from ChatGPT were compared to real-world health questions. A team of licensed health care professionals evaluated the responses and preferred ChatGPT's answers 79% of the time. Additionally, they found ChatGPT's answers to be more empathetic and of higher quality than those provided by human doctors.
ChatGPT is an AI language model developed by OpenAI. The technology is capable of generating human-like text that can provide accurate and nuanced information to patients seeking medical advice.
How does ChatGPT work?
To obtain a large and diverse sample of healthcare questions, the study's team turned to Reddit's AskDocs. This social media forum allows patients to post medical questions that licensed medical professionals can answer. The team sampled 195 exchanges where a verified physician responded to a public question. They provided the original question to ChatGPT and asked it to author a response.
A panel of three licensed healthcare professionals compared each question and the corresponding responses and were blinded to whether the response originated from a physician or from ChatGPT. They compared responses based on information quality and empathy, noting which one they preferred.
The panel preferred ChatGPT's responses to physician responses almost 80% of the time. ChatGPT messages provided nuanced and accurate information that often addressed more aspects of the patient's questions than physician responses. Additionally, ChatGPT's responses were rated significantly higher in quality than physician responses. Empathetic responses were also 9.8 times higher for ChatGPT than for physicians.
The future of AI in healthcare
Investments in AI assistant messaging could impact patient health and physician performance positively. AI technologies could train doctors in patient-centered communication, build new medical safety systems, and assist doctors by delivering higher quality and more efficient care.
While AI tools won't replace doctors, they have the potential to make doctors more efficient and accurate, and patients happier and healthier. "Empathy with patients can be the first thing to go when doctors are overwhelmed, but empathy is critical in care: A patient doesn't listen to a doctor if they don't feel heard. This study is evidence that AI could help doctors maintain empathetic and accurate communication with their patients," said Mark Dredze, an associate professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering and a co-author of the study.
The opportunities for improving healthcare with AI are massive, as AI-augmented care is the future of medicine. The results of this study provide an early glimpse into the important role that AI assistants could play in healthcare.
