ChatGPT and neurosurgical education: A crossroads of innovation and opportunity

Saman Arfaie¹, Mohammad Sadegh Mashayekhi², Mohammad Mofatteh³, Crystal Ma⁴, Richard Ruan⁵, Mark A MacLean⁶, Rena Far⁷, Jasleen Saini⁸, Irene E Harmsen⁹, Taylor Duda¹⁰, Alwyn Gomez¹¹, Alexander D Rebchuk¹², Alick Pingbei Wang², Neilen Rasiah¹¹, Eddie Guo⁷, Ali M Fazlollahi¹³, Emma Rose Swan⁴, Pouya Amin¹⁴, Safraz Mohammed², Jeffrey D Atkinson¹⁵, Rolando F Del Maestro¹⁵, Fady Girgis⁷, Ashish Kumar¹⁶, Sunit Das¹⁷

Affiliations

¹ Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada; Department of Neurosurgery and Neurology, McGill University Faculty of Medicine, Montreal, QC, Canada. Electronic address: saman.arfaie@mail.mcgill.ca.
² University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine, Division of Neurosurgery, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
³ School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
⁵ Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁶ Division of Neurosurgery, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
⁷ Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Calgary, AB, Canada.
⁸ Department of Neurosurgery, University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁹ Division of Neurosurgery, University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
¹⁰ Division of Neurosurgery, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
¹¹ Section of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
¹² Division of Neurosurgery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
¹³ Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
¹⁴ University of California Irvine School of Medicine, California, CA, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Neurosurgery and Neurology, McGill University Faculty of Medicine, Montreal, QC, Canada.
¹⁶ Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹⁷ Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.

PMID: 39236407
DOI: 10.1016/j.jocn.2024.110815

ChatGPT and neurosurgical education: A crossroads of innovation and opportunity

Saman Arfaie et al. J Clin Neurosci. 2024 Nov.

. 2024 Nov:129:110815.

doi: 10.1016/j.jocn.2024.110815. Epub 2024 Sep 4.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada; Department of Neurosurgery and Neurology, McGill University Faculty of Medicine, Montreal, QC, Canada. Electronic address: saman.arfaie@mail.mcgill.ca.
² University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine, Division of Neurosurgery, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
³ School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
⁵ Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁶ Division of Neurosurgery, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
⁷ Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Calgary, AB, Canada.
⁸ Department of Neurosurgery, University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁹ Division of Neurosurgery, University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
¹⁰ Division of Neurosurgery, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
¹¹ Section of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
¹² Division of Neurosurgery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
¹³ Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
¹⁴ University of California Irvine School of Medicine, California, CA, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Neurosurgery and Neurology, McGill University Faculty of Medicine, Montreal, QC, Canada.
¹⁶ Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹⁷ Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.

PMID: 39236407
DOI: 10.1016/j.jocn.2024.110815

Abstract

Large language models (LLM) have been promising recently in the medical field, with numerous applications in clinical neuroscience. OpenAI's launch of Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3.5 (GPT-3.5) in November 2022 and its successor, Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4 (GPT 4) in March 2023 have garnered widespread attention and debate surrounding natural language processing (NLP) and LLM advancements. Transformer models are trained on natural language datasets to predict and generate sequences of characters. Using internal weights from training, they produce tokens that align with their understanding of the initial input. This paper delves into ChatGPT's potential as a learning tool in neurosurgery while contextualizing its abilities for passing medical licensing exams and neurosurgery written boards. Additionally, possibilities for creating personalized case presentations and study material are discussed alongside ChatGPT's capacity to optimize the research workflow and perform a concise literature review. However, such tools need to be used with caution, given the possibility of artificial intelligence hallucinations and other concerns such as user overreliance, and complacency. Overall, this opinion paper raises key points surrounding ChatGPT's role in neurosurgical education.

Keywords: ChatGPT; Clinical neuroscience; Generative artificial intelligence; Large Language Model; Medical education; Neural networks; Open AI.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Dr. Saman Arfaie, Dr. Mohammad Mashayekhi and Dr. Mohammad Mofatteh are co-founders of the Neuro International Collaboration (NIC; https://neuro.international/). Mr. Saman Arfaie and Dr. Mohammad Mashayekhi are co-founders of the Canadian Medical Student Interest Group in Neurosurgery (CaMSIGN; https://camsign.ca/). Mr. Eddie Guo is the co-creator of the platform Learning Medicine, which offers hands-on clinical scenarios to improve learners’ clinical skills in the standard format of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) through simulated cases with personalized feedback. Through this platform, users can generate OSCE-style questions based on the specialty of interest and determine the difficulty level of the case. Some features of OSCE-GPT include the availability of neuroimaging studies, and tailored feedback for student improvement. All other authors declare no competing conflict of interest.

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ChatGPT and neurosurgical education: A crossroads of innovation and opportunity

Affiliations

ChatGPT and neurosurgical education: A crossroads of innovation and opportunity

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

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