Robert Pearl, MD, former CEO of Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente, said if he was still in charge of the health system, he'd have all physicians using ChatGPT in their practice, Wired reported April 24.
"I think it will be more important to doctors than the stethoscope was in the past," Dr. Pearl said. "No physician who practices high-quality medicine will do so without accessing ChatGPT or other forms of generative AI."
Dr. Pearl said ChatGPT is already being used by physicians to summarize patient interactions, write letters and give a second opinion when it comes to diagnosing patients. Dr. Pearl said he believes physicians will continue to find other ways the technology can help improve patient care.
For example, Dr. Pearl said language models in healthcare will become similar to the iPhone, where the technology will incorporate various features that aim to help patients manage chronic disease.
He even stated that technology like ChatGPT could help prevent some of the more than 250,000 U.S. patient deaths that occur as a result of medical errors.
For now, Dr. Pearl said ChatGPT could serve as a way to provide care for patients, but that all of its decisions must be reviewed by a physician.