ChatGPT in Healthcare: Navigating Potential and Risks

There’s no doubt that AI is making waves all around the world, including in healthcare. At a special roundtable discussion at ViVE23 held by Wysa, Decimal.health, and Hop Labs, health tech leaders came together to discuss the future of ChatGPT in healthcare. We invited participants from health systems, digital health technologies, fortune 500 companies, and also regulators to join this roundtable discussion and share their insights on the topic of AI in healthcare. 

The future of AI in healthcare will transform personalized care and increase access to healthcare worldwide. In addition to clear administrative benefits, such as writing medical notes, provider operations, administration, and triaging there are opportunities for personalized patient care. But participants raised the issue that going beyond this would require a change in levels of trust, a full change management architecture, and a focus on user benefits as well as financials.

Our round table attendees included influential decision makers from a variety of healthcare organizations like provider systems, pharma and HHS/ONC. The summary below provides a glimpse into the perspectives of these attendees. 

Debunking ChatGPT-Style AI Myths

Before discussing the opportunities, attendees explored the myths around ChatGPT and generative AI. Firstly, there’s a belief that it will mostly make healthcare services cheaper, easier, and faster to access, the notion that it will primarily be limited to administrative and operational tasks, and the idea that it will predominantly benefit affluent communities. Although these assumptions might have some truth, they were likely oversimplified, and the potential benefits and limitations of ChatGPT and generative AI in healthcare would depend on a variety of factors, and a more nuanced understanding and analysis needs to happen before we can predict its future.

Democratizing Healthcare

Although natural language generation and generative models take a long time to build, they do have the potential to democratize healthcare and bring about significant change for patients, practitioners, and providers in the future. Ideas included improving patient outcomes and experiences, enhancing diagnosis and treatment options, and streamlining administrative tasks. 

One example that was discussed was the way that conversational AI could improve the availability of support and access in a highly personalized manner. Even with the clinician making the diagnosis, the availability of a medical-grade version of ChatGPT will enable patients to better understand the diagnosis and its impact on their lives in a personalized manner and get their questions answered with patience and understanding. ChatGPT and similar technologies can help patients adopt an advised care plan into their lives by providing curated recommendations and real-time support day-to-day. These types of technologies may be able to enable a scalable, affordable form of the concierge-medicine-like experience. 

Establishing Trust and Credibility

Participants agreed that there was tremendous potential for AI to revolutionize healthcare but that careful planning and responsible implementation would be necessary to ensure that AI was used in ways that were ethical, equitable, and beneficial to all stakeholders.

As an example of early deployment of chatbot-based AI technologies, Wysa shared that it is already trusted by users, with recent research showing that three times as many people are willing to open up to AI than a human, and numerous studies having shown that it works. The challenge comes in the healthcare system. There are difficulties fitting the technology into traditional payment models and reimbursement systems, and part of this is building a business case around the ROI which will get leaders excited about it. And credibility, with the suggestion of a certification program to increase transparency and support credibility and trust in AI decision-making. ChatGPT and AI models have been at the center of concern around security breaches and confidentiality, so enterprise-level security and data protection are essential to building trust and thus adoption. 

Transformative Potential

AI offers transformative potential by democratizing healthcare and as a result bringing about significant change. It is all very exciting, but what was agreed by Wysa, Decimal.health, and Hop Labs was that it is crucial to go beyond the hype and focus on practical considerations to ensure the successful adoption and use of the technology. Essentially what we need is a responsible transition to a future where transformative AI can play an increasingly important role in healthcare, designed for people who will be helped by it rather than a financial potential. Then great things will happen.  

Broaden Your AI Knowledge

As a follow-up to this discussion at ViVE, we also plan to host a webinar on the topic of Transforming Healthcare with AI on May 3rd, from 12:00 – 1:00 pm EST. This panel discussion will explore the impacts of AI on healthcare, including its potential to improve medical research, diagnosis, and treatment, as well as the risks and challenges associated with their use. Register now. 

With the impact of ChatGPT on everyone’s minds, Wysa has produced a whitepaper looking at the use of generative AI in mental health care, its implications, advantages and challenges.  The whitepaper, Conversational AI for Mental Health: Potential & Risks, explores how to navigate conversational AI in healthcare outside of the hype cycle. It focuses on the practical aspects of conversational AI, including usability, privacy, and safety considerations, and outlines the guardrails put in place to ensure these aspects are prioritized. The paper provides insights and guidance for those looking to implement conversational AI in healthcare, emphasizing the need to go beyond the hype and focus on practical considerations to ensure the successful adoption and use of the technology. And created a great deal of conversation in the room. Download the full whitepaper here.

Finally, we have also created a LinkedIn Group dedicated to exploring the latest advancements and trends in the field of healthcare AI. Join our group, “AI Health Transformers,” to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in AI in healthcare, share your insights, and network with like-minded professionals!

Thank You to the AI Roundtable Attendees

We had a diverse group of attendees join the conversation at the AI Roundtable we hosted at ViVE. Thank you to all of our attendees for sharing their input, challenges, and expectations for AI in healthcare. Below is a list of the experts that attended our breakfast.