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. 2023 Jun 28;14(4):482-486.
doi: 10.4103/idoj.idoj_72_23. eCollection 2023 Jul-Aug.

Using ChatGPT for Writing Articles for Patients' Education for Dermatological Diseases: A Pilot Study

Himel Mondal  1 , Shaikat Mondal  2 , Indrashis Podder  3
Affiliations

Using ChatGPT for Writing Articles for Patients' Education for Dermatological Diseases: A Pilot Study

Himel Mondal et al. Indian Dermatol Online J. .

Abstract

Background: Patients' education is a vital strategy for understanding a disease by patients and proper management of the condition. Physicians and academicians frequently make customized education materials for their patients. An artificial intelligence (AI)-based writer can help them write an article. Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (ChatGPT) is a conversational language model developed by OpenAI (openai.com). The model can generate human-like responses.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the generated text from ChatGPT for its suitability in patients' education.

Materials and methods: We asked the ChatGPT to list common dermatological diseases. It provided a list of 14 diseases. We used the disease names to converse with the application with disease-specific input (e.g., write a patient education guide on acne). The text was copied for checking the number of words, readability, and text similarity by software. The text's accuracy was checked by a dermatologist following the structure of observed learning outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy. For the readability ease score, we compared the observed value with a score of 30. For the similarity index, we compared the observed value with 15% and tested it with a one-sample t-test.

Results: The ChatGPT generated a paragraph of text of 377.43 ± 60.85 words for a patient education guide on skin diseases. The average text reading ease score was 46.94 ± 8.23 (P < 0.0001), and it indicates that this level of text can easily be understood by a high-school student to a newly joined college student. The text similarity index was higher (27.07 ± 11.46%, P = 0.002) than the expected limit of 15%. The text had a "relational" level of accuracy according to the SOLO taxonomy.

Conclusion: In its current form, ChatGPT can generate a paragraph of text for patients' educational purposes that can be easily understood. However, the similarity index is high. Hence, doctors should be cautious when using the text generated by ChatGPT and must check for text similarity before using it.

Keywords: Article; ChatGPT; artificial intelligence; dermatologists; software.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Data collection and analysis method (X is the individual disease name for each conversation, and the value in the bracket for t-test indicates the hypothetical values with which the data were compared)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Screenshot showing a portion of the conversation with the input—”Common skin diseases”
Figure 3
Figure 3
Correlation of the number of words with time, readability ease score, and text similarity index
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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