Summary:
Drugs constitute a fundamental aspect of medical treatment, yet errors in prescription and patient adherence pose significant challenges. Addressing these issues, a groundbreaking AI tool, DrugGPT, has been developed at Oxford University. Its primary objective is to provide a safety net for clinicians during prescription while enhancing patient understanding of medication usage.
By simply inputting a patient’s conditions, healthcare professionals can obtain instant second opinions from DrugGPT. Prototype versions of the tool offer recommended drugs along with flagged potential adverse effects and drug interactions. Prof David Clifton, leading the project at Oxford’s AI for Healthcare lab, highlights DrugGPT’s capability to provide comprehensive explanations, including research, flowcharts, and references supporting its recommendations.
Unlike mainstream generative AI chatbots, DrugGPT demonstrates competitive performance with human experts, as evidenced in US medical license exams. However, it’s crucial to maintain human oversight in medical decision-making. Clifton emphasizes DrugGPT as a safety net, providing advice for comparison rather than replacing human judgment.
Medical errors, estimated at 237 million annually in England, incur substantial costs and, tragically, lives. Patient nonadherence to medication further exacerbates the issue, wasting significant resources for NHS England. Dr. Lucy Mackillop from Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust underscores DrugGPT’s potential to empower doctors with comprehensive drug information, facilitating informed patient discussions and promoting medication compliance.
Dr. Michael Mulholland, vice-chair of the Royal College of GPs, acknowledges the potential of sophisticated safety measures like DrugGPT to mitigate human errors. However, he stresses the importance of adequate funding and staffing in general practice to ensure safe patient care in the long term. With ongoing advancements in AI, tools like DrugGPT represent a promising avenue for enhancing healthcare delivery while prioritizing patient safety and well-being.
Article written by James Tapper
31/03/2024
Source:
The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/mar/31/druggpt-new-ai-tool-could-help-doctors-prescribe-medicine-in-england