ChatGPT is everywhere. Some praise it; others curse it. Yet, nobody can deny there are some potential applications of the technology in various industries, including healthcare. Respectively, telehealth ChatGPT might be the next essential solution to multiple issues the sector faces. With projected revenue of $1 billion by 2024, ignoring this technology is a significant mistake.
At this point, Gartner explores some notable ChatGPT use cases in research and development. Taking the case further, let’s analyze how the tool might benefit healthcare and discover its potential challenges.
Table of Contents
What Is ChatGPT?
In a nutshell, ChatGPT is a next-generation conversational tool that leverages the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Deep Learning. Created by OpenAI, the tool is founded on the latest iteration of the GPT language model. The technology addresses multiple inquiries, from writing narratives in the styles of prominent writers to solving programming challenges. In such a case, ChatGPT may lead to the growing chatbot market (see Fig.1).
In addition to conversational opportunities, ChatGPT can be used for automating daily tasks and improving data management. Keeping this in mind, let’s examine more healthcare-specific telehealth ChatGPT use cases to understand how the technology can influence people’s perceptions of the industry.
8 Most Crucial ChatGPT Use Cases in Healthcare Today
Technology brings AI closer to healthcare. The range of its industry-specific advantages may range from better decision-making to more capable telehealth. Yet, to understand the full scope of the subject matter, here are eight ChatGPT’s uses that bring healthcare to the next level.
1. Summarizing Patient Records
According to this article, ChatGPT got more than 1 million users in under a week. Thus, it can accumulate a large number of user-patients and collect more patient data when used in healthcare. As a systemic patient analysis tool, healthcare professionals can use telehealth ChatGPT to summarize patient records. While leveraging AI and ML, it can be trained to serve as a physician’s digital assistant.
The technology can extract patient records, group them, and label them per specific categories, for instance, family history, lab results, medication, symptoms, and many more. That will grant physicians new access to patient information to make diagnosing more personalized.
2. Boosting Patient Education
After the COVID-19 pandemic, a higher number of patients value the importance of self-diagnosing. With telehealth ChatGPT, the matter of patient education can be redesigned completely. Physicians can use the tool’s simplified syntax to keep patients informed and knowledgeable. In most cases, the traditional perspective on patient data revolves around professional language – the one patients cannot understand. ChatGPT can change that.
The technology can bring intelligible health-related insights directly to patients when coupled with telehealth AI. In a broader scope, one can even have a medicine podcast with scripts and writing generated by telehealth ChatGPT. Healthcare professionals can use this approach to educate patients on pressing health-related topics, thus promoting different aspects of public health.
3. Addressing Patient Inquiries
As mentioned above, ChatGPT can serve as a chatbot when interacting with patients. One of the obvious telehealth ChatGPT use cases is all about answering FAQs. While medical professionals are exposed to a fast-paced working environment, they often need more time to deal with various simple patient inquiries. In such a case, ChatGPT can narrow down the gap in care information and provide answers to patients’ FAQs in a human-like manner.
Besides, the tool can engage in a systematic patient analysis when dealing with inquiries. It means telehealth ChatGPT can analyze patterns in patient inquiries and prioritize some most pressing topics while notifying physicians about what patients are most concerned about. To respond to inquiries, medical professionals can also use telemedicine ChatGPT to establish a direct and informative communication channel with multiple patients.
4. Better Chatbots and Virtual Assistants
At this moment, you might have noticed a direct connection between ChatGPT and telehealth. Both technologies can aid one another and bring a next-level patient experience. Telehealth ChatGPT, which must be built following HIPAA standards, can become a new evolution of a standard chatbot and virtual assistant.
In short, telehealth AI ensures that patient-machine interaction is conducted in a way that people do not recognize when they are communicating with software. In such a case, bringing ChatGPT to telehealth is a direct path toward improving workflows while elevating the patient experience.
People often use patient portals to deal with some mundane workflow-related aspects. Yet, with telehealth ChatGPT, these can be automated, making it unnecessary to have administrative staff handling these tasks. Besides, do not forget that ChatGPT can be as good as Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant by interacting with patients via different communication channels.
5. Handling Vast Volumes of Medical Data
Up to a point, we scratched only one particular aspect of digital healthcare with telehealth ChatGPT – patient interaction. However, let’s not forget that technology is a data processing tool that can help deal with a growing number of data out there (see Fig. 2).
Coupling telehealth ChatGPT with Big data tools is a great way to make sense of the vast amounts of raw medical data. The tool can help tap into this uncharted territory and find insights medical professionals can use for better diagnosing and treatment opportunities. Besides, when used correctly, the instrument can help deal with some healthcare data management problems.
6. Predictive Capabilities
When it comes to AI, ML, and RPA, there is one particular aspect in common – predictive capabilities. These stem from the fact that the technologies above can process vast amounts of data and extract some evidence-based insights. At this point, telehealth ChatGPT is another opportunity to tap into AI-based predictive analytics.
More specifically, a transformer model within ChatGPT can search through training data to locate certain patterns. Then, these insights can be used for medical summarization or for designing better treatment options. Predictive analytics brought by ChatGPT AI is a new way to anticipate the best treatment approaches for tackling a changing patient condition.
7. Personalized Treatment Plans
ChatGPT brings forward predictive capabilities allowing healthcare professionals to predict the best treatment methods for specific conditions. However, the technology can also be used to design personalized treatment plans. ChatGPT, an AI instance in healthcare, is a great way to bring personalization into service provision.
One can imagine medical professionals utilizing ChatGPT for systemic patient analysis, which means processing vast amounts of patient-related data and adopting it into predictive analytics patterns. In such a case, physicians will have a comprehensive picture of a patient’s medical history and condition. Equipped with these insights, one can make highly personalized patient-specific treatment decisions, thus improving the overall quality of service provision.
8. Relieving Daily Tasks
Finally, ChatGPT can make the lives of administrative staff and medical professionals much more accessible. Digital healthcare with ChatGPT brings forward process automation. We illustrated one example above when the tool could handle FAQs instead of dedicated personnel. Yet, the scope of relieving various manual tasks is much broader.
To illustrate, ChatGPT can help healthcare professionals transcribe medical records and generate reports at a far greater pace. Besides, the technology can be trained to transcribe the entire patient medical record archives. All these aspects of automation grant medical professionals more time to focus on patient-related health inquiries.
The Future Potential for ChatGPT Healthcare Applications
The trajectory of ChatGPT and other GenAI models within healthcare is marked by tremendous potential and transformative applications. As we look ahead, integrating these techs promises to reshape patient care, medical research, and healthcare administration, creating an era of more personalized and accessible medical services.
Agentic Medical Assistance and Intelligent Clinical Coding
Near-future trends highlight the rise of agentic medical assistance, where AI systems will operate more autonomously, supporting healthcare tasks and streamlining clinical workflows. This autonomy will extend to intelligent clinical coding, automating medical documentation processes and enhancing administrative efficiency.
Enhanced Clinical Productivity and Patient Engagement
Generative AI’s ability to create value through improved administrative efficiency, enhanced clinical productivity, and transformed patient engagement will also revolutionize care delivery. Applications include early disease detection, personalized treatment plans, and the analysis of complex medical records with near human-like precision.
Personalized Learning and Automated Scoring in Medical Education
ChatGPT’s potential covers personalized learning and automated scoring in medical education. That will help facilitate remote patient monitoring and chronic disease management through tailored advice. In 2025, ChatGPT will assist in diagnosing and planning treatments for intricate medical conditions, becoming integral to managing and updating patient data within EHRs.
Autonomous AI Systems and Complex Data Analysis
The convergence of GenAI, NLP, and other AI modalities suggests a future where AI systems perform complex tasks with greater autonomy. They will act as intelligent assistants across the healthcare spectrum. AI’s ability to analyze medical images, process intricate data, and make informed decisions will lead to sophisticated diagnostics and treatment planning applications.
Proactive and Individualized Healthcare
The potential of ChatGPT to facilitate early disease detection and deliver personalized treatment plans shows a shift towards proactive and individualized healthcare. By analyzing vast datasets, AI can identify at-risk individuals and tailor interventions, preventing serious health issues.
Deep Medical Research
ChatGPT’s role in medical education and research will accelerate the relevant discovery and enhance training. It can assist with literature reviews, data analysis, and educational materials, leading to rapid advancements in medical knowledge.
As AI techs like ChatGPT evolve, their integration into healthcare will drive better patient care, research, and education advancements. By leveraging such tools responsibly and ethically, medical providers will create new possibilities for improving patient outcomes and transforming the delivery of medical services.
ChatGPT and Healthcare Regulations
Integrating ChatGPT and similar large language models (LLMs) into medical practices presents a promising frontier. Still, it also introduces complex regulatory considerations that organizations must address to ensure patient safety and data privacy. Healthcare rules and regulations that govern patient health information (PHI), like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the USA, impose strict requirements on how data is collected, stored, and used.
ChatGPT, which relies on vast datasets and sophisticated algorithms, depends on a thorough understanding of these regulations to avoid potential compliance breaches.
- One primary concern revolves around data privacy. ChatGPT processes and generates text based on patterns learned from extensive training data, which could inadvertently include PHI if not properly anonymized or secured. Medical organizations must ensure that any interaction with ChatGPT does not expose sensitive patient data, whether through direct input or generated output. That requires robust data governance policies: strict access controls, encryption, and anonymization techniques.
- The accuracy and reliability of data generated by ChatGPT pose regulatory issues. Medical advice and diagnoses generated by AI must be carefully vetted and validated by healthcare experts to ensure patient safety. So, regulatory bodies may require stringent validation processes and clear disclaimers to prevent the dissemination of inaccurate or misleading medical information. Liability issues surrounding AI-generated medical advice are also a great concern, requiring clear guidelines on responsibility and accountability.
- Another critical aspect is transparency. Patients must be informed about the use of AI in their care and can opt-out. That requires clear communication and informed consent processes, ensuring patients understand how their data is used and protected. Regulatory frameworks rely on detailed documents and audit trails to show compliance.
- Using ChatGPT in research and development is subject to regulatory scrutiny. Clinical trials and AI research studies must adhere to ethical guidelines and legal standards, ensuring patient data integrity. That includes obtaining necessary approvals and certifications and complying with data sharing and publication requirements.
Ultimately, integrating ChatGPT into healthcare demands a proactive approach to regulatory compliance. Medical organizations must prioritize patient safety, data privacy, and transparency, guaranteeing that AI techs are used appropriately. As regulatory frameworks develop to address the unique challenges of AI in healthcare, ongoing collaboration among technology developers, medical providers, and regulatory bodies will be essential to provide safe and effective adoption.
ChatGPT Challenges in Healthcare
ChatGPT is still in its germination stage, and a lot must be done to deal with the potential challenges it brings. Notably, it is an even more pressing matter in the context of the rising number of healthcare data breaches (see Fig. 3).
Keeping that in mind, these are some notable ChatGPT challenges to address:
- The current ChatGPT iteration relies on outdated data, which means the algorithms can process information up to 2021. That is a significant concern for healthcare, an industry heavily relying on accurate and up-to-date data.
- In most cases, the quality of responses ChatGPT offers depends on how well asking prompts are designed. In other words, if a patient does not know how to present a correct inquiry, one will get an incorrect response.
- Another limitation is again about prompts. The response might be biased if someone asks ChatGPT a biased question.
These are some notable ChatGPT challenges. These must be addressed to make the tool fully eligible to be used in healthcare. Besides, one should also expect when ChatGPT is brought into the medical field, it should be reconfigured per HIPAA and HIPAA-related regulations.
Utilizing ChatGPT for Healthcare Customer Support
Adopting ChatGPT in healthcare customer support presents an adequate opportunity to enhance patient interactions and streamline support services. This advanced language model can be leveraged to offer personalized assistance, improve patient satisfaction, and reduce the workload of healthcare staff. By automating responses to FAQs, scheduling appointments, and providing general data, ChatGPT can serve as a valuable first point of contact for patients.
- One key benefit of using it in healthcare customer support is the 24/7 availability. Patients can access data and assistance anytime, eliminating waiting for business hours or navigating complex phone menus. This instant access can benefit patients seeking immediate answers to urgent questions or needing to schedule appointments.
- ChatGPT can personalize interactions by tailoring responses to individual patient needs. The model can provide relevant and helpful data by analyzing patient inquiries and past interactions, enhancing the overall patient experience. This personalization can extend to providing medication reminders, post-discharge instructions, and general health advice, ensuring patients receive the support they need.
- ChatGPT can streamline administrative tasks, reducing the burden on healthcare staff. Staff can focus on more complex and patient-centric tasks by automating responses to routine inquiries, such as appointment scheduling, prescription refills, and insurance questions. That can lead to increased efficiency and improved patient care.
- Integrating ChatGPT with healthcare systems, such as electronic health records (EHRs) and patient portals, can further enhance its capabilities. This integration allows the model to access relevant patient information, creating more accurate and personalized responses. ChatGPT can provide specific medication instructions based on the patient’s medical history or schedule visits based on availability and preferences.
Thus, utilizing ChatGPT for healthcare customer support can enhance patient interactions and streamline support services. By providing instant, personalized assistance and automating routine tasks, healthcare organizations improve patient satisfaction and reduce staff workload.
The Bottom Line
Telehealth ChatGPT might be the next big thing in healthcare. However, investing much time and effort is apparent to address the notable ChatGPT challenges above. If handled correctly, the list of healthcare-related ChatGPT use cases can go far beyond the eight potential applications mentioned above. After all, the companies recognizing the value of ChatGPT first are the ones getting a competitive edge first as well.
FAQ
How can you use ChatGPT in healthcare?
As a sophisticated language model, ChatGPT offers many applications within healthcare, mainly focused on enhancing communication, information dissemination, and administrative efficiency. One of its most promising use cases is in patient communication and support. You can deploy ChatGPT as a virtual assistant to answer FAQs, provide pre- and post-appointment information, and offer general health advice, improving patient engagement and satisfaction. Such 24/7 availability reduces the burden on healthcare staff and provides timely assistance to patients.
In administrative tasks, ChatGPT can automate various processes, like appointment scheduling, prescription refills, and insurance inquiries. Integrating with existing healthcare systems helps streamline workflows and reduce administrative overhead, allowing medical experts to focus more on patient care. Additionally, it assists in generating medical documentation, summarizing patient records, and transcribing doctor-patient interactions.
ChatGPT also plays a vital role in medical education and training. It creates interactive learning modules, generates case studies, and provides real-time feedback to medical students and healthcare professionals. That may enhance the learning experience and ensure healthcare providers stay up-to-date with the latest medical knowledge and best practices. In research, ChatGPT assists in literature reviews, data analysis, and the preparation of research papers, accelerating the pace of medical discovery.
Furthermore, ChatGPT can provide personalized health information and support to patients with chronic conditions. It can generate tailored educational materials, track patient symptoms, and offer personalized advice on managing their conditions, enabling them to take a more active role in their care. However, you must ensure that any interaction with ChatGPT complies with rules and regulations, such as HIPAA, and protects patient health information (PHI). Implementing robust security measures is essential for responsible and effective implementation.
Will ChatGPT transform healthcare?
While ChatGPT’s potential is vast, its impact on healthcare transformation will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The relevant shift will be marked by gradually integrating AI-driven conversational tools into existing healthcare frameworks, increasing efficiency and accessibility instead of fundamentally altering care delivery. So, the transformation will be characterized by augmentation, where AI supports healthcare professionals rather than replacing them entirely.
One key area is the democratization of health data. For instance, ChatGPT offers an accessible and user-friendly interface for patients to understand complex medical concepts, prepare for appointments, or manage chronic conditions. That empowers patients to take a more active role in their health management, leading to better adherence to treatment plans and health literacy.
Another critical change is the acceleration of administrative and research processes. ChatGPT’s ability to quickly synthesize and analyze large volumes of text-based data will streamline tasks like literature reviews, medical coding, and creating patient-facing educational materials. That frees up medical professionals to focus on patient interaction and clinical decision-making.
Furthermore, ChatGPT will likely enhance the delivery of telehealth services. The tool’s ability to provide real-time, personalized communication improves the quality of remote consultations and supports patients in managing their health from home. That is particularly relevant for patients in underserved areas or with mobility limitations.
At the same time, the transformation will be tempered by the need for rigorous validation and oversight. The medical field demands high accuracy and reliability, and human experts must thoroughly vet AI-generated information. Regulatory frameworks will need to evolve to address the unique challenges of AI in healthcare, ensuring patient safety and data privacy.
Ultimately, ChatGPT will transform healthcare by strengthening communication, streamlining administrative processes, and democratizing access to health data. This gradual integration will improve efficiency, patient engagement, and the overall quality of care, without fully altering the core principles of medical practice.
Can you use ChatGPT for corporate healthcare training?
Yes, you can effectively use ChatGPT for corporate healthcare training. It offers a versatile and interactive platform for educating healthcare professionals and administrative staff. The ability to generate customized content, simulate real-world scenarios, and provide immediate feedback makes it a valuable tool for enhancing training programs.
One key advantage of using ChatGPT for corporate healthcare training is the chance to create personalized learning experiences. The system provides training materials tailored to employees’ needs and learning styles, ensuring they receive relevant and engaging content. Such personalization can extend to creating interactive quizzes, simulations, and case studies that allow employees to apply their knowledge practically. ChatGPT also facilitates constant learning by offering on-demand access to training materials and resources.
In addition, you may utilize ChatGPT to simulate real-world scenarios, allowing employees to practice their skills in a safe and controlled environment. That can be particularly valuable for training medical professionals to handle complex patient interactions or make critical emergency decisions. The tool also provides immediate feedback on employee performance, enabling them to identify areas for improvement and refine their skills.
Furthermore, ChatGPT efficiently creates training materials on compliance and regulatory requirements. It helps employees understand their responsibilities and adhere to best practices for protecting patient health information (PHI). Finally, integrating ChatGPT with existing learning management systems (LMS) can enhance its capabilities, allowing for seamless employee progress and performance tracking.
