ChatGPT and AI in Primary Care: Exploring Perceptions and Attitudes among Clinicians and Patients to Enhance Communication, Patient Involvement, and Care Quality

Artificial intelligence (AI) holds the potential to revolutionize primary care by enhancing diagnostics, treatment, and communication.

ChatGPT, an advanced natural language AI model, can process large amounts of data to augment primary care provider-patient interactions.

But it is unclear how licensed professionals and patients perceive the use of AI assistants like ChatGPT in primary care?This study aims to investigate perceptions and attitudes towards ChatGPT and similar clinical decision support technologies among licensed professionals and patients in primary care.

By conducting qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 20 clinicians and 20 patients, we will gather in-depth and diverse insights into participants´ viewpoints.

The study will focus on ethical, legal, and safety considerations, as well as challenges and opportunities participants see in using AI assistants in primary care.By understanding licensed professionals´ and patients´ perspectives, we can contribute to the development of effective and ethical guidelines for using AI assistants like ChatGPT in primary care.

The study is part of our new research group which aims to evaluate emerging AI technologies for safe and efficient integration in primary care.

The research group, co-founded by myself, several primary care clinicians, and potential doctoral students in innovation, AI safety, ethics, and integration, plans for long-term research and the production of several publications on this topic.