ChatGPT better than physicians in responding to patient’s queries: Report
The speculation about how advances in artificial intelligence (AI) assistants like ChatGPT could be used in medicine has got an answer. According to a study, ChatGPT has proved to be much better in providing high-quality, empathetic advice to patients’ questions than physicians.
The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, compared written responses from physicians and those from ChatGPT to real-world health questions, said an IANS report.
Also read: IIT Madras researchers develop easy-to-use device to assess blood vessel health
ChatGPT preferred
A licensed healthcare professionals’s panel rated ChatGPT’s responses as more empathetic and preferred its responses 79 per cent of the time.
The question that the study sought an answer to was whether ChatGPT can respond accurately to questions patients send to their doctors? If successful, this could improve physician responses to questions sent by patients and ease the physicians’ burden.
According to researchers, while virtual healthcare increased following Covid-19 pandemic, physicians were overwhelmed by messages from patients seeking medical advice. This had led to record-breaking levels of physician burnout.
Patients’ questions
To understand how ChatGPT can help, the team sampled 195 exchanges from Reddit’s AskDocs where a verified physician responded to a public question, the report said.
The original question was given to ChatGPT for a response. A three-member panel of licensed healthcare professionals assessed the responses and found it difficult to figure out whether a response originated from the physician or ChatGPT.
Comparison of responses
They compared responses based on information quality and empathy – it turned out that they preferred ChatGPT responses to physician responses 79 per cent of the time. ChatGPT messages often addressed more aspects of the patient’s questions than physician responses, the study showed.
Also read: Brain’s internal compass could suggest why people with Alzheimer’s feel lost
ChatGPT responses were also rated significantly higher in quality than physician responses. The responses were also more empathic; empathy 9.8 times higher for ChatGPT than for physicians, the report added.
