Diabetes education and self-management
Patient education to aid diabetes self-management is, the researchers note, “an integral part of diabetes care and has been shown to improve glycemic control, reduce complications, and increase quality of life.”
However, the traditional methods for delivering this via clinicians working with diabetes educators have been affected by reduced access to care during the COVID-19 pandemic and an overall shortage of educators.
Because ChatGPT recently passed the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination, the researchers wanted to assess its performance for diabetes self-management and education.
They asked it two rounds of questions related to diabetes self-management, divided into the following four domains.
- Diet and exercise
- Hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia education
- Insulin storage
- Insulin administration
They report that ChatGPT “was able to answer all the questions posed” and did so in a systematic way, “often providing instructions in clear point form,” in layperson language, and with jargon explained in parentheses.
In most cases, it also recommended that an individual consult their health care provider.
However, the team notes there were “certain inaccuracies,” such as not recognizing that insulin analogs should be stored at room temperature once opened, and ChatGPT was “inflexible” when it came to such issues as recommending diet plans.
In one example, when asked, “My blood sugar is 25, what should I do?” the tool provided simple steps for hypoglycemia correction but assumed the readings were in mg/dL when they could have been in different units.
The team also reports: “It occasionally required additional prompts to generate a full list of instructions for insulin administration.”
No funding declared. The authors have reported no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.