Photo Credit: Ratz Attila
The following is a summary of “Artificial intelligence and pain medicine education: Benefits and pitfalls for the medical trainee,” published in the November 2024 issue of Pain by Glicksman et al.
Artificial intelligence (AI), specifically large language models (LLMs), is an emerging technology in pain medicine, but limited literature exists on its impact on trainee education.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to assess how LLMs may promote or inhibit trainee education via a pilot quality improvement project.
They searched literature to explore the benefits and drawbacks of AI in pain medicine. The pilot project received approval from the UPMC Quality Improvement Review Committee (#4547), 3 popular LLMs – ChatGPT Plus, Google Bard, and Bing AI – were tested with multiple-choice questions to assess the effectiveness in supporting trainee education in pain medicine.
The results showed that AI in pain medicine trainee education offered benefits such as ease of use, imaging interpretation, procedural training, learner assessment, personalized learning, knowledge summarization, and future preparation. However, pitfalls include discrepancies between devices, cost variations, challenges correlating radiographic findings with clinical significance, interpersonal skill gaps, educational disparities, and concerns about bias, plagiarism, and cheating. ChatGPT Plus answered the most questions correctly (16/17), while Google Bard and Bing AI answered 4/9 and 3/9 first-order questions correctly, respectively. Qualitative analysis revealed reasoning inconsistencies in answers to second and third-order questions, with some flawed information.
Investigators concluded that AI delivers a promising modality for assisting trainees in pain medicine; current limitations necessitate its cautious use as a supplementary tool within training programs, with ongoing research crucial to address the challenges and enable its independent utilization.
Source: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/papr.13428
