Can ChatGPT replace doctors? ‘Probably not, at least for right now, as surveying shows patient trust in chatbots and generative AI in healthcare is relatively low,’ reported PatientEngagementHIT.
The survey by University of Arizona Health Services team, revealed ‘around half of patients don’t fully trust AI-powered medical advice, like the information issued from chatbots like ChatGPT. ‘Instead, patients still trust and prefer their traditional healthcare providers.’
However, the survey, published in PLOS Digital Health, noted patients may be more receptive to chatbot medical advice if the AI ‘is guided by a doctor’s or human’s touch’.
Survey author Professor Marvin Slepian said: ‘While many patients appear resistant to the use of AI, accuracy of information, nudges and a listening patient experience may help increase acceptance.
‘To ensure the benefits of AI are secured in clinical practice, future research on best methods of physician incorporation and patient decision making is required.’
The researchers studied patient preferences in two phases: first, the team conducted structured interviews with patients ‘to assess their reactions and perceptions of current and future AI systems in medical care’; the team also surveyed over 2,000 patients about their potential preferences with AI.
For both groups, the researchers ‘worked to determine whether patients would rather consult with an AI chatbot like ChatGPT or a physician’.
Patients were generally split, with 52% preferring consulting with real physicians over 47% for AI chatbots. This was ‘generally consistent across disease severity’, which researchers tested by prompting patients to imagine they had leukemia versus having sleep apnea.
There were some patient demographic factors linked to trusting AI for medical advice: black patients were less likely than white patients to trust the technology; and older patients, those with conservative political views, and those with stronger religious views were less likely to trust AI chatbots like ChatGPT.
However, one factor that could sway a patient to place greater trust in generative AI chatbots was after patients ‘got positive provider reviews of the technologies’ – when they then became more comfortable using the tools.
Patients who previously said they did not trust AI chatbots ‘reconsidered their stances after hearing from their primary care providers that the technology had superior accuracy or was the established choice for diagnosis or triaging’.
It also helped when the primary care provider ‘reassured patients that the AI had trained counsellors to hear about patient needs’. AMP
