"Development and Implementation of Novel Chatbot-based Genomic Research Consent"

Artificial Intelligence-Powered Surgical Consent: Patient Insights

Introduction The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare has revolutionized patient interactions and service delivery. AI's role extends from supporting clinical diagnostics and enhancing operational efficiencies to potentially improving informed consent processes in surgical settings. This study investigates the application of AI, particularly large language models like OpenAI's ChatGPT, in facilitating surgical consent, focusing on patient understanding, satisfaction, and trust. Methods We employed a mixed-methods approach involving 86 participants, including laypeople and medical staff, who engaged in a simulated AI-driven consent process for a tonsillectomy. Participants interacted with ChatGPT-4, which provided detailed procedure explanations, risks, and benefits. Post-interaction, participants completed a survey assessing their experience through quantitative and qualitative measures. Results Participants had a cautiously optimistic response to AI in the surgical consent process. Notably, 71% felt adequately informed, 86% found the information clear, and 71% felt they could make informed decisions. Overall, 71% were satisfied, 57% felt respected and confident, and 57% would recommend it, indicating areas needing refinement. However, concerns about data privacy and the lack of personal interaction were significant, with only 42% reassured about the security of their data. The standardization of information provided by AI was appreciated for potentially reducing human error, but the absence of empathetic human interaction was noted as a drawback. Discussion While AI shows promise in enhancing the consistency and comprehensiveness of information delivered during the consent process, significant challenges remain. These include addressing data privacy concerns and bridging the gap in personal interaction. The potential for AI to misinform due to system "hallucinations" or inherent biases also needs consideration. Future research should focus on refining AI interactions to support more nuanced and empathetic engagements, ensuring that AI supplements rather than replacing human elements in healthcare. Conclusion The integration of AI into surgical consent processes could standardize and potentially improve the delivery of information but must be balanced with efforts to maintain the critical human elements of care. Collaborative efforts between developers, clinicians, and ethicists are essential to optimize AI use, ensuring it complements the traditional consent process while enhancing patient satisfaction and trust.

Understanding ChatGPT for evidence-based utilization in interventional radiology

Advancement in artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to improve the efficiency and accuracy of medical care. New techniques used in machine learning have enhanced the functionality of software to perform advanced tasks with human-like capabilities. ChatGPT is the most utilized large language model and provides a diverse range of communication tasks. Interventional Radiology (IR) may benefit from the implementation of ChatGPT for specific tasks. This review summarizes the design principles of ChatGPT relevant to healthcare and highlights activities with the greatest potential for ChatGPT utilization in the practice of IR. These tasks involve patient-directed and physician-directed communications to convey medical information efficiently and act as a medical decision support tool. ChatGPT exemplifies the evolving landscape of new AI tools for advancing patient care and how physicians and patients may benefit with strategic execution.

Consent-GPT: is it ethical to delegate procedural consent to conversational AI?

Obtaining informed consent from patients prior to a medical or surgical procedure is a fundamental part of safe and ethical clinical practice. Currently, it is routine for a significant part of the consent process to be delegated to members of the clinical team not performing the procedure (eg, junior doctors). However, it is common for consent-taking delegates to lack sufficient time and clinical knowledge to adequately promote patient autonomy and informed decision-making. Such problems might be addressed in a number of ways. One possible solution to this clinical dilemma is through the use of conversational artificial intelligence using large language models (LLMs). There is considerable interest in the potential benefits of such models in medicine. For delegated procedural consent, LLM could improve patients' access to the relevant procedural information and therefore enhance informed decision-making.In this paper, we first outline a hypothetical example of delegation of consent to LLMs prior to surgery. We then discuss existing clinical guidelines for consent delegation and some of the ways in which current practice may fail to meet the ethical purposes of informed consent. We outline and discuss the ethical implications of delegating consent to LLMs in medicine concluding that at least in certain clinical situations, the benefits of LLMs potentially far outweigh those of current practices.

Applications of artificial intelligence in clinical laboratory genomics

The transition from analog to digital technologies in clinical laboratory genomics is ushering in an era of "big data" in ways that will exceed human capacity to rapidly and reproducibly analyze those data using conventional approaches. Accurately evaluating complex molecular data to facilitate timely diagnosis and management of genomic disorders will require supportive artificial intelligence methods. These are already being introduced into clinical laboratory genomics to identify variants in DNA sequencing data, predict the effects of DNA variants on protein structure and function to inform clinical interpretation of pathogenicity, link phenotype ontologies to genetic variants identified through exome or genome sequencing to help clinicians reach diagnostic answers faster, correlate genomic data with tumor staging and treatment approaches, utilize natural language processing to identify critical published medical literature during analysis of genomic data, and use interactive chatbots to identify individuals who qualify for genetic testing or to provide pre-test and post-test education. With careful and ethical development and validation of artificial intelligence for clinical laboratory genomics, these advances are expected to significantly enhance the abilities of geneticists to translate complex data into clearly synthesized information for clinicians to use in managing the care of their patients at scale.