News

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly relevant in healthcare, but at least 80% of GPs have reported that they are not at all, or not very, familiar with specific AI tools.

 

To help GPs broaden their understanding of the technology, and weigh up the potential advantages and disadvantages of its use in their practice, the RACGP has unveiled a comprehensive new resource focused on conversational AI.  

 

Unlike AI scribes, which convert a conversation with a patient into a clinical note that can be incorporated into a patient’s health record, conversational AI is technology that enables machines to interpret, process, and respond to human language in a natural way.

 

Examples include AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants that can support patient interactions, streamline appointment scheduling, and automate routine administrative tasks.

 

The college resource offers further practical guidance on how conversational AI can be applied effectively in general practice and highlights key applications. These include:

• answering patient questions regarding their diagnosis, potential side effects of prescribed medicines or by simplifying jargon in medical reports
• providing treatment/medication reminders and dosage instructions
• providing language translation services
• guiding patients to appropriate resources
• supporting patients to track and monitor blood pressure, blood sugar, or other health markers
• triaging patients prior to a consultation
• preparing medical documentation such as clinical letters, clinical notes and discharge summaries
• providing clinical decision support by preparing lists of differential diagnoses, supporting diagnosis, and optimising clinical decision support tools (for investigation and treatment options)
• suggesting treatment options and lifestyle recommendations.

Dr Rob Hosking, Chair of the RACGP’s Practice and Technology Management Expert Committee, told newsGP there are several potential advantages to these tools in general practice.
 
‘Some of the potential benefits include task automation, reduced administrative burden, improved access to care and personalised health education for patients,’ he said.
 
Beyond the clinical setting, conversational AI tools can also have a range of business, educational and research applications, such as automating billing and analysing billing data, summarising the medical literature and answering clinicians’ medical questions.
 
However, while there are a number of benefits, Dr Hosking says it is important to consider some of the potential disadvantages to its use as well.
 
‘Conversational AI tools can provide responses that appear authoritative but on review are vague, misleading, or even incorrect,’ he explained.
 
‘Biases are inherent to the data on which AI tools are trained, and as such, particular patient groups are likely to be underrepresented in the data.
 
‘There is a risk that conversational AI will make unsuitable and even discriminatory recommendations, rely on harmful and inaccurate stereotypes, and/or exclude or stigmatise already marginalised and vulnerable individuals.’
 
While some conversational AI tools are designed for medical use, such as Google’s MedPaLM and Microsoft’s BioGPT, Dr Hosking pointed out that most are designed for general applications and not trained to produce a result within a clinical context.
 
‘The data these general tools are trained on are not necessarily up-to-date or from high-quality sources, such as medical research,’ he said.
 
The college addresses these potential problems, as well as other ethical and privacy considerations, that come with using AI in healthcare.
 
For GPs deciding whether to use conversational AI, Dr Hosking notes that there are a number of considerations to ensure the delivery of safe and quality care, and that says that patients should play a key role in the decision-making process as to whether to use it in their specific consultation.
 
‘GPs should involve patients in the decision to use AI tools and obtain informed patient consent when using patient-facing AI tools,’ he said.
 
‘Also, do not input sensitive or identifying data.’
 
However, before conversational AI is brought into practice workflows, the RACGP recommends GPs are trained on how to use it safely, including knowledge around the risks and limitations of the tool, and how and where data is stored.
 
‘GPs must ensure that the use of the conversational AI tool complies with relevant legislation and regulations, as well as any practice policies and professional indemnity insurance requirements that might impact, prohibit or govern its use,’ the college resource states.
 
‘It is also worth considering that conversational AI tools designed specifically by, and for use by, medical practitioners are likely to provide more accurate and reliable information than that of general, open-use tools.
 
‘These tools should be TGA-registered as medical devices if they make diagnostic or treatment recommendations.’
 
While the college recognises that conversational AI could revolutionise parts of healthcare delivery, in the interim, it recommends that GPs be ‘extremely careful’ in using the technology at this time.
 
‘Many questions remain about patient safety, patient privacy, data security, and impacts for clinical outcomes,’ the college said.
 
Dr Hosking, who has yet to implement conversational AI tools in his own clinical practice, shared the sentiment.
 
‘AI will continue to evolve and really could make a huge difference in patient outcomes and time savings for GPs,’ he said.
 
‘But it will never replace the important role of the doctor-patient relationship. We need to ensure AI does not create health inequities through inbuilt biases.
 
‘This will help GPs weigh up the potential advantages and disadvantages of using conversational AI in their practice and inform of the risks associated with these tools.’
 
Log in below to join the conversation.

AI AI scribes artificial intelligence conversational AI