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© 2023. This work is licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Background:Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize the way medicine is learned, taught, and practiced, and medical education must prepare learners for these inevitable changes. Academic medicine has, however, been slow to embrace recent AI advances. Since its launch in November 2022, ChatGPT has emerged as a fast and user-friendly large language model that can assist health care professionals, medical educators, students, trainees, and patients. While many studies focus on the technology’s capabilities, potential, and risks, there is a gap in studying the perspective of end users.

Objective:The aim of this study was to gauge the experiences and perspectives of graduating medical students on ChatGPT and AI in their training and future careers.

Methods:A cross-sectional web-based survey of recently graduated medical students was conducted in an international academic medical center between May 5, 2023, and June 13, 2023. Descriptive statistics were used to tabulate variable frequencies.

Results:Of 325 applicants to the residency programs, 265 completed the survey (an 81.5% response rate). The vast majority of respondents denied using ChatGPT in medical school, with 20.4% (n=54) using it to help complete written assessments and only 9.4% using the technology in their clinical work (n=25). More students planned to use it during residency, primarily for exploring new medical topics and research (n=168, 63.4%) and exam preparation (n=151, 57%). Male students were significantly more likely to believe that AI will improve diagnostic accuracy (n=47, 51.7% vs n=69, 39.7%; P=.001), reduce medical error (n=53, 58.2% vs n=71, 40.8%; P=.002), and improve patient care (n=60, 65.9% vs n=95, 54.6%; P=.007). Previous experience with AI was significantly associated with positive AI perception in terms of improving patient care, decreasing medical errors and misdiagnoses, and increasing the accuracy of diagnoses (P=.001, P<.001, P=.008, respectively).

Conclusions:The surveyed medical students had minimal formal and informal experience with AI tools and limited perceptions of the potential uses of AI in health care but had overall positive views of ChatGPT and AI and were optimistic about the future of AI in medical education and health care. Structured curricula and formal policies and guidelines are needed to adequately prepare medical learners for the forthcoming integration of AI in medicine.

Details

Title
Medical Student Experiences and Perceptions of ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence: Cross-Sectional Study
Author
Alkhaaldi, Saif M I  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Kassab, Carl H  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Dimassi, Zakia  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Alsoud, Leen Oyoun  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Maha Al Fahim  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Cynthia Al Hageh  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ibrahim, Halah  VIAFID ORCID Logo 
First page
e51302
Section
Theme Issue: ChatGPT and Generative Language Models in Medical Education
Publication year
2023
Publication date
2023
Publisher
JMIR Publications
e-ISSN
23693762
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2917890646
Copyright
© 2023. This work is licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.