News Article

A BMJ survey of 1,000 GPs found that twenty per cent of GPs have used GenAI in clinical practice, but according to polls we should be OK with it!

The survey, published last week, said that of those GPs who used GenAI, nearly an equal number used it for differential diagnosis and generating documentation after patient appointments. This was closely followed by treatment suggestions. Simpler tasks like patient summaries and writing letters were less common.

Another poll by the Health Foundation showed that 54% of the UK public and 76% of NHS staff supported the use of AI in patient care. Despite the wide support, a minority feared AI could make the quality of care worse. The survey included 7,200 members of the UK public and 1,292 NHS staff.

Despite WHO warnings, the lack of guidelines, and inadequate cyber security measures, GenAI use in clinical practice is expected to grow. Policing it would be like putting toothpaste back in the tube. Future solutions may involve working with fine-tuned healthcare-specific LLMs and AI models, but only as part of a robust AI strategy.

The BMJ survey also explored GPs’ views on how GenAI could impact all aspects of primary care, with results pending release, but will no doubt be very revealing of attitudes toward these tools and the impact they will have on primary care.