ChatGPT may be better at providing more empathetic answers to patient questions, according to an April 28 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
In the study, researchers compared two sets of written responses to 195 real-world patient questions.
The physician responses were sourced from patient questions asked on Reddit, while the other responses were written by ChatGPT.
Both sets of responses were evaluated by a three-member panel of licensed healthcare professionals, with 79 percent preferring the answers of ChatGPT.
More than a quarter of the physicians' responses were marked as less acceptable in quality by the panel, while ChatGPT's responses were deemed less acceptable only 3 percent of the time.
The panel also found that ChatGPT's responses to patient inquiries were more empathetic. Only 5 percent of physicians' responses were marked as empathetic.
The authors noted one limitation of the study is that the physician responses came from a public online forum, and physicians in a clinical setting may form their answers differently based on their established relationships with patients.