AI chatbots are increasing doctors’ workload
Unverified medical information that patients get from general-purpose chatbots creates a need for extra explanation during visits and can affect the doctor-patient relationship.
As AI technologies enter more areas of life, unverified or incorrect medical information from general language models and chatbots is creating a new problem in healthcare. Incorrect information from these platforms can cause unnecessary anxiety in patients, increase the number of questions they put to their doctors and weaken trust in doctors. This increases doctors’ workload and can damage the doctor-patient relationship.
An extra burden on the health system
The information offered by general language models cannot assess an individual’s medical situation and can be misleading. When patients come to their doctor worried by information found online, doctors have to spend extra time correcting it and explaining the right treatment. This creates inefficiency in the health system and unnecessary stress for patients.
A chatbot cannot replace a doctor’s diagnosis
Language models and chatbots are powerful tools, but they need to be used with great care when it comes to medical advice. They are not designed to assess complex and individual medical information correctly. The answer a patient gets by asking a language model about their symptoms cannot replace a doctor’s diagnosis.
These technologies need to be developed responsibly and used in ways that support doctors rather than make their work harder. For example, dedicated AI solutions that help with administrative tasks and data analysis can allow doctors to spend more time with patients. Medical diagnosis and treatment decisions, however, must always remain in the hands of a specialist.
What can be done?
Solving this problem requires cooperation between AI developers and healthcare organizations. It is also important to raise public awareness that medical information from general AI tools should be approached with caution and that a specialist should be consulted for any health problem.
For the difference between general-purpose chatbots and clinical decision support systems, see the guide General-purpose chatbots and clinical decision support.