Clinical Report: Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models in Private Practice

Overview

Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT can enhance private practice efficiency by assisting with patient education materials and staff training. However, clinicians must recognize their limitations, including potential inaccuracies and lack of clinical judgment.

Background

Large language models are advanced AI programs trained on vast datasets to generate text by predicting word patterns and context. Popular LLMs include OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Anthropic's Claude. These tools can support healthcare providers by automating routine tasks, but they do not replace clinical expertise. Understanding their capabilities and caveats is essential for safe and effective integration into clinical workflows.

Data Highlights

LLMs analyze large collections of public text, images, and videos to identify trends and predict text completion based on context. For example, given the prompt "The garden is full of beautiful _______ ," an LLM predicts "flowers" by recognizing typical word associations.

Key Findings

• LLMs can assist in drafting patient-education materials, such as definitions of dry eye disease.
• They support staff onboarding and training by generating sample dialogues and educational summaries.
• LLMs do not form opinions or clinical judgments; their outputs reflect patterns in training data and may not always be accurate.
• Accuracy improves with detailed context provided by the user, but subtle clinical nuances may be missed.
• LLMs are not trained healthcare providers; all medical information they generate should be verified against trusted clinical sources.
• OpenAI has restricted ChatGPT from providing personalized medical advice due to inconsistencies in responses.

Clinical Implications

Clinicians should use LLMs as supportive tools rather than definitive sources of medical guidance. By leveraging their strengths in administrative and educational tasks while verifying clinical content, providers can improve practice efficiency without compromising patient safety.

Conclusion

Large language models offer valuable efficiencies for private practices when used judiciously. Recognizing their limitations ensures they serve as effective adjuncts to, rather than replacements for, clinical expertise.

Related Resources & Content

1. Nafey OM 2024 -- Artificial Intelligence: Looking at Large Language Models