ChatGPT: Your AI Colleague – Embrace or Tolerate, It's Here to Stay
Published on: March 08, 2024
Our recent annual meeting beckoned us to envision "beyond the horizon," a call that echoed in discussions on technological advancements, notably ChatGPT. The program defines itself as a "neural network-based language model developed by OpenAI," and is more casually understood as a program crafting human-like textual responses based on user input. At its essence, ChatGPT could be a solution for those in search of extra assistance navigating mundane tasks, unlocking our innovative potential as healthcare providers and learner developers. There are numerous areas that have been touted as ways the software can be of benefit and I would like to highlight 10 potential areas for consideration:
1. Education & Empowerment: ChatGPT can be an assistant in both formal education and self-directed learning in neurocritical care. Whether serving as a virtual mentor to provide studying assistance and writing support, or helping educators elucidate complex concepts, ChatGPT can bridge the knowledge gap between learners and seasoned preceptors.
2. Enhancing Patient Satisfaction: Quality healthcare hinges on patient satisfaction. With studies like the one in JAMA Internal Medicine (JAMA Intern Med. 2023;183(6):589–596) indicating superior empathetic responses from ChatGPT over humans, clinicians can leverage it to provide accurate, empathetic, and timely interactions.
3. Documentation Assistance: Given the often-overwhelming burden of clinical documentation, clinicians could consider allowing ChatGPT to craft templates for recurring documentation, streamlining record-keeping, and assist in billing practices.
4. Research Assistance: Researchers could potentially augment their scientific process with ChatGPT by using it to assist with literature reviews and data analysis, offering insights that may have otherwise been overlooked.
6. Administrative Tasks: In both clinical and academic settings, ChatGPT could help expedite certain administrative work, from drafting emails to academic proposals.
7. Job Applications & Preparation: In an application that has already gained some usage in professional settings, ChatGPT could be utilized to assist in the job search process. For example, it could help craft compelling letters of intent based on information from your CV and the stated goals of the position, simulate interview questions relevant to the position while working through possible responses, and develop questions to ask interviewers to gain insights on work culture, interpersonal interactions, and pain points of the organization.
8. Annual Reviews: From a managerial standpoint, ChatGPT could help streamline evaluations when reviewing associates, and can also potentially aid in self-assessments as well.
9. Feedback Collection: Given the importance of using feedback to improve our clinical care, ChatGPT could help more efficiently gather feedback and pinpoint areas of improvement.
10. Patient Education & Communication: In an extension of ChatGPT’s potential as an educational resource, clinicians could utilize it to simplify complex medical concepts for patients, enhancing their understanding and engagement in their care.
Beneficial as it may be, ChatGPT does present some ethical quandaries. Ongoing security concerns should prompt caution with some of its capabilities, especially with potential violations of IRB, HIPAA, or FERPA regulations. However, integrating ChatGPT responsibly via institutional IT departments may help mitigate these concerns. Additionally, there is still work to be done to address inherent biases in AI training data, ensure AI-generated transparency, and retain a human touch in healthcare. While embracing ChatGPT may yet herald a new frontier for neurocritical care, it’s important to consider some additional counterpoints:
1. Education & Empowerment: There is a risk of over-reliance on this technology which can result in diminishing skills related to critical thinking and problem-solving. Additionally, a lag in applying up-to-date knowledge is possible given that the algorithms are only as reliable as the information available to them.
2. Enhancing Patient Satisfaction: The verbose nature of ChatGPT’s responses might create a perception of attentiveness and care, as patients might assume the effort and time a human would need to craft such detailed replies. However, when it comes to demonstrating empathy, especially in spiritual contexts, its limitations become evident. For instance, its attempts at composing sermons, while knowledgeable and scripturally relevant, often fail to provide a genuine empathetic connection with the congregation. This gap highlights ChatGPT’s inability to authentically understand and convey the emotional and spiritual nuances that are essential in empathetic communication.
3. Documentation Assistance: While not unique to this technology, there is a risk of inaccuracy and potential non-compliance with evolving healthcare regulations and standards.
4. Research Assistance: While able to assist in literature reviews, ChatGPT might not always accurately interpret complex scientific data. Thus, its analysis could miss critical connections or nuances that a human researcher would dig into further.
6. Administrative Tasks: AI assistance in these tasks could lead to a decrease in the “personal touch” of certain communications, especially those that involve delicate conversations. Also, an over-reliance on AI for drafting content could diminish soft skills that are imperative to building relationships and improving patient care.
7. Job Applications & Preparation: Depending on the information you provide the language processing algorithm, it may produce generic responses that lack the personalized insight a knowledgeable human mentor might offer.
8. Annual Reviews: There is a risk of over-standardization that could lead to less personalized feedback and decreased recognition of individual contributions and achievements.
9. Feedback Collection: ChatGPT could oversimplify or misinterpret feedback, missing subtle but important suggestions for improvement. It may also fail to capture the emotional context behind feedback provided.
10. Patient Education & Communication: ChatGPT can simplify medical concepts, but it may not be able to effectively tailor explanations to each patient’s level of understanding or cultural background. This could result in further misunderstandings for our patients and their caregivers, especially considering the numerous complex disease states found in neurocritical care.
I offer Dr. Shyu’s enlightening words from the NCS Annual meeting: "AI won't replace humans but humans with AI will replace humans without AI." For the uninitiated, consider taking the leap, be it for work innovations or for some light-hearted humor: "Knock, knock. Who's there? Neuron. Neuron who? Neuron the team too? Great, let's brainstorm together!"