AI chatbots could help safely diagnose patients ahead of GP visits as experts hail ‘crucial step’

Artificial intelligence chatbots could help to diagnose patients days before seeing a GP, a small study suggests.

While further research is needed, the technology may assist family doctors in preparing for visits and could even change their approach to treatment in certain cases.

Researchers in the US examined online conversations from 98 patients at a GP clinic in Boston, who engaged with an AI chatbot up to five days ahead of their scheduled appointments.

The chatbot provided each patient with potential diagnoses alongside proposed next steps to discuss at upcoming consultations.

Doctors monitored these conversations in real time and received chat transcripts prior to appointments.

Published in The Lancet, the study revealed that the AI’s suggested diagnoses matched eventual confirmed diagnoses in more than half of cases.

Accuracy reached 75 per cent when considering the chatbot’s top three suggestions, while none of the conversations triggered safety stops.

Patient attitudes towards AI in primary care also improved after interacting with the chatbot, researchers said.

However, one conversation was later rated “somewhat harmful” by a doctors after the chatbot listed a possible cancer diagnosis which caused the patient anxiety.

In another conversation, the chatbot hallucinated, and clinical information was added in five interactions.

Researchers said: “Although further research is needed, this study shows the initial feasibility of conversational AI in a real-world setting – assessed via conversation safety and quality, as well as user acceptance- and represents a crucial step towards clinical translation.”

Elsewhere, doctors reviewed the AI transcript beforehand and filled out a questionnaire for 44 cases in the study.

In 75% of cases, medics said the AI chatbot helped them prepare for patient visits.

They also said it may have changed their approach for more than half of cases.

Researchers said the findings suggest that patient-facing chatbots “can engage in safe and meaningful clinical conversations in real workflows”.

However they stress the evidence “does not yet support autonomous use for diagnosis, triage, or management”.

They called for future studies to examine the safety of diagnoses, communication between patients and clinicians, doctors’ workloads, cost, and the level of oversight required for safe use.

Professor Victoria Tzortziou Brown, president of the Royal College of GPs, said: “Research into how AI performs with real patients in real clinical settings is welcome, particularly as much of the evidence so far has come from simulated cases.

“This study provides some interesting early findings, but it is small, was conducted in a single US practice, and importantly every chatbot conversation was closely supervised by a doctor, with patients also speaking to that doctor afterwards. It therefore cannot tell us how safe or effective this approach would be without that level of clinical oversight.”

Prof Brown said the relationships between GP and patients over time also play an important role in diagnosis.

“GPs bring clinical judgment, an understanding of a patient’s history and circumstances and, through continuity of care, knowledge built up over time,” she added.

“AI should support that relationship and clinical decision-making, not replace them.

“Before tools like this are introduced into NHS care, we need larger, independent studies comparing them with current care and looking at safety, inequalities, impact on GP workload and, crucially, whether they actually improve outcomes for patients. Alongside that evidence, we need appropriate regulation and clear clinical accountability.”