This AI tool assists doctors with prescribing medications to patients
What's the story
Oxford University researchers have created an innovative artificial intelligence tool, DrugGPT, aimed at assisting doctors in prescribing medicines. The tool is also designed to improve patients' understanding of their medication regimen. By entering a patient's medical condition into the chatbot, healthcare providers can quickly obtain a second opinion. Preliminary versions of this tool provide a range of suggested medications and highlight potential side effects and drug interactions.
Doctor's assistant
AI tool provides reasons for its prescriptions
Professor David Clifton, project leader at Oxford's AI for Healthcare lab, revealed that the tool provides reasons for its suggestions. "It will present the guidance—the research, flowcharts and references—and the reasoning behind its specific drug recommendations," Clifton explained. He emphasized that human judgment is still crucial in this process, describing the tool as "a safety net: here's a suggestion to compare your suggestion against."
Expertise
DrugGPT matches human experts in medical exams
While some doctors currently use popular generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini for diagnosis verification and medical note creation, these tools have been discouraged by global medical associations due to misinformation risks. However, Clifton and his team assert that DrugGPT "matches human experts" in US medical license exams, indicating its potential reliability in the field of medicine.