Using ChatGPT to Study Medicine: Learn The Basics

Hello! I'm Ari Horesh, a third-year medical student at Harvey's course in Italy. I'm excited to write this article about how to use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve your experience in school. As a medical student and an entrepreneur, I have found that AI tools can be incredibly useful in creating educational content and managing my life. In this article, I'll share my experiences and knowledge about using ChatGPT, an AI-powered language model, to enhance your learning experience as a student. We'll start with the basics of AI and then dive into a step-by-step guide on how to use ChatGPT to study medicine more efficiently. As the field of medicine becomes increasingly competitive, we need to keep up with the latest technology and tools, including AI.

Using ChatGPT, you can stay relevant in our rapidly changing field and prepare yourself for the future of medicine. So, join me as we explore the world of ChatGPT and learn how to use this powerful tool to succeed in your studies. Remember, doctors who embrace AI will be better prepared for the future of medicine.

The Benefits of Utilizing AI as A Medical Student

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize medical education, empowering students and educators with powerful tools to learn more efficiently and effectively. One of the most significant benefits of using AI in medical education is the ability to analyze vast amounts of data and quickly identify patterns and insights that would be impossible for humans to uncover.

For example, AI can analyze patient history, clinical diagnosis, and other medical information, providing students with a more comprehensive understanding of their condition and helping them identify the most effective treatments. By leveraging AI-powered tools, students can save time and focus on what's most important - providing high-quality care to their patients.

Check out our latest free Anki bot that will created flashcards for you and give you study tips for medicals school!

AI can also create question banks like those found on medical exams, saving students time and providing the practice they need to succeed. With AI, students can quickly create Anki flashcards and take notes, streamlining the learning process and freeing up time to focus on other essential aspects of medical education.

Additionally, AI can provide students personalized feedback, highlighting areas where they need to focus their attention and providing recommendations for further study. This is particularly helpful in medical education, where the amount of information that needs to be learned can be overwhelming. Using AI-powered tools, students can focus on the most important, saving time and improving their learning experience.

Using ChatGPT To Generate Practice Questions

While ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for generating practice questions for medical students, it is essential to remember that the information it provides may not always be accurate. This can be due to various factors, such as incomplete or outdated data, bias in the training data, or limitations in the AI model's algorithms.

To avoid inaccuracies in the generated practice questions, medical students can insert parts of their notes or textbooks into ChatGPT to provide additional context and ensure that the information is up-to-date and accurate. This can be done using specific prompts that allow the AI model to generate responses based on the inserted data.

For example, a medical student can input a prompt such as "In the context of heart disease, what are the risk factors and diagnostic criteria for myocardial infarction?" and insert relevant information from their notes or textbooks, such as the risk factors for heart disease, the pathophysiology of myocardial infarction, and the diagnostic criteria for electrocardiogram (ECG) and cardiac biomarkers. Using these specific prompts and inserting relevant information ensures that the generated practice questions are accurate and pertinent to their coursework.

Moreover, the prompts and the inserted information can be reused for future practice questions or exams, saving time and effort in the long run. By using ChatGPT in this way, medical students can use its power to generate personalized responses and practice questions while avoiding inaccuracies and ensuring the quality of their study materials.

Generating Practice Questions From Books

As previously mentioned, ChatGPT has some limitations, especially since it is still in beta testing. However, we can provide the model with specific text on to base its response, and it can process multiple pages of text at once. To demonstrate, I will ask ChatGPT to analyze several pages from the NCERT Biology book, which is commonly used in high schools in India, and to prepare for the NEET exam (the entrance exam in India). Utilizing ChatGPT in this way can be a valuable tool for generating practice questions, which can be reviewed later to help with exam preparation.

(Chapter 7 from the public NCERT Book, found on ncert.nic.in. I will copy the text in section 7.1.3 and ask ChatGPT to write a few questions about it)

Crafting effective prompts is just as important for engaging ChatGPT as for sparking discussions among humans. Although ChatGPT is a language model, it requires clear and specific prompts to generate high-quality responses.

Here is a bad example for a prompt for getting multiple choice practice questions based on the text. It is not shown in the picture, but I pasted the entire section from NCERT:

Here is the response we got. While it can be used to revise the topic, it isn't not really what we expected to get:

As with humans, longer and more precise prompts tend to elicit better responses from ChatGPT. Providing more detailed information and context to ChatGPT through the prompt can help it understand the topic more fully, leading to more accurate and relevant answers.

For instance, let's say you want to know more about the causes and effects of climate change. Rather than asking a general question like "What is climate change?" it would be more effective to ask a more specific and informative prompt such as "What are the major causes of global warming, and how do they contribute to changes in the Earth's climate?"

ChatGPT can more easily comprehend the question and generate a thoughtful response by providing a clear focus and direction in the prompt. This is similar to how humans provide better answers when the question is more specific and informative.

Here is a good example of a prompt to use when you want to create MCQs from any piece of text.

The Prompt I used: "Imagine you are a teacher that needs to examine your students on a piece of text. Write me multiple choice questions with 5 options, where each one is different than the other (and try not to repeat yourself, so the students will be able to be asked on as many parts of the text as possible) Make the questions long and challenging, and remember to base the questions only from the text, and not from your trained information. Mention the answer, and next to the answer, also quote the part of the text justifying why you chose that answer"

MCQs generated by ChatGPT, with worked solution and justification for the answer:

Great! Now you know how to generate practice questions you can use before your exams. This method can be used on any level of text, from basic biology questions all the way to difficult clinical cases which we will describe next!

ChatGPT And Clinical Cases Practice

One of the main advantages of incorporating ChatGPT into medical education is its ability to produce responses specific to the user's input. As a medical student, you can ask questions about your specific coursework or clinical practice.

ChatGPT can generate tailored responses to meet your individual learning needs, allowing you to learn more effectively and efficiently.

Prompt: "What are the common symptoms of a heart attack?"

You can input this prompt into ChatGPT, and the AI model can generate a response that includes information on the common symptoms of a heart attack, such as chest pain, shortness of breath, and fatigue. The response can also include information on risk factors, treatment options, and prevention strategies. The example above is an example of a basic prompt you can use for ChatGPT.

As you remember from the previous section, when it comes to using AI, the better the prompt, the better and more precise the answer will be.

Prompt: "What are the common symptoms of a heart attack and how do they differ in men and women?"

This time, you can input this prompt into ChatGPT, and the AI model can generate a response that includes information on the common symptoms of a heart attack and how they may differ between men and women. The example above is a bit more specific, but still not quite there.

Let's be much more specific this time, and give ChatGPT as many details as possible, trying to mimic a USMLE Step 1 type of question (Which medical students usually take during their clinical year of medical school).

Prompt: "A 60-year-old male patient with a history of hypertension and high cholesterol presents to the emergency department with chest pain and shortness of breath. He has a family history of heart disease and has been a smoker for 30 years. What is the most likely diagnosis, and what are the treatment options?"

ChatGPT will analyze the patient history and generate responses based on clinical guidelines, research studies, and other sources of medical knowledge. The generated response may suggest that the patient is experiencing an acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), a common complication of hypertension, high cholesterol, smoking, and family history of heart disease. The response may also provide information on the diagnostic tests, such as electrocardiogram (ECG) and blood tests, used to confirm the diagnosis.

Let's try using the same prompt we used above, this time narrowing down ChatGPT's answer until it gives us a concise answer.  

Create a Study Schedule Using ChatGPT

As a medical student, you're faced with tremendous information to learn, and knowing how to organize your studies can be difficult. Fortunately, with the help of ChatGPT, you can create a personalized study schedule that will help you stay on track and make the most of your study time. Here are a few steps to get started!

Determine your goals and priorities.

Before creating a study schedule with ChatGPT, it's important to identify your goals and priorities. Ask yourself what you hope to achieve through your studies and what areas of medicine you must focus on most. This will help you create a plan tailored to your specific needs.

For example, if you're preparing for an upcoming exam, your focus may be reviewing specific topics or memorizing important facts using MCQs you creating with ChatGPT. On the other hand, if you're in the early stages of your studies, you may need to build a foundation of knowledge in various areas by asking ChatGPT to simplify text and elaborate on some hard topics.

During Early Preparation, your prompts are expected to look like this: "I didn't understand why bacteria don't go through mitosis"

Alternatively, you can take pieces of text and ask ChatGPT to clarify things for you, for example:

[text] Hey! I didn't understand why X causes Y, mind explaining it to me? Maybe give me a few analogies so I will understand the concept, and remind me what concepts I need to know in order to understand this text, because it feels like something is missing in my knowledge.  

Create a Personalized Schedule

Once you understand your goals and priorities, you can use ChatGPT to create a personalized study schedule. ChatGPT can even suggest study topics, provide resources such as textbooks or journal articles, and offer tips on how to study effectively.

For example, if you aim to master basic biology and chemistry for your upcoming medical admission exam, you can ask ChatGPT to review your syllabus and  create a schedule focusing on these areas. You can even ask for specific study techniques for specific topics, based on your experience and feedback while studying, such as flashcards or practice quizzes, to help you learn the material more effectively.

In the following example I will use the IMAT's (The Italian Medical Admission Test) syllabbus and ask ChatGPT to create a study schedule for me using the following prompt.

Example Prompt: "Hey! I am taking the IMAT exam, it's an admission exam for medical school in Italy, and the exam is in English. I am attaching here the syllabus of biology and chemistry, and I was wondering if you could help me create a time table with all of these subjects, allowing me to know what should I should focus on every day for the next 3 months until the exam. Base the answer of the difficulty of each subject, give more time for things that are harder to learn and need more practice, and less time for things the average student will find more simple [Syllabus]"

And as you can see, ChatGPT created a study plan for us (which is surprisingly similar to the one I offer on my website, but it created it in three seconds and not over four year)

Be Realistic With Your Time

When creating a study schedule using ChatGPT, it's important to be realistic with your time. You must ensure that you have enough time to cover all the material you need to learn while allowing for breaks and other activities. Don't cram too much into a single day, which can lead to burnout and decreased productivity. You can describe ChatGPT events and dealines you have, things you prefer to prioritize and even ask it to order things for you in a sequential manner.

Monitor Your Progress

Once you have your study schedule in place, monitoring your progress and making adjustments as needed is important. If you're falling behind or struggling with certain topics, don't be afraid to change your schedule. You may need to devote more time to certain areas or adjust your study techniques to be more effective.

ChatGPT can also help you monitor your progress by providing regular feedback and reminders. You can set up regular check-ins with ChatGPT to discuss your progress and receive suggestions for improvement.

Some More Examples of ChatGPT prompts for study schedule creation

• "Can you suggest study topics for mastering anatomy and physiology?"
• "What study techniques are most effective for learning pharmacology?"
• "Can you recommend textbooks or journal articles for studying biochemistry?"
• "How can I create a study schedule that allows for breaks and other activities?"
• "What areas of medicine should I prioritize in my study schedule?"
• "Can you suggest a daily study routine that matches my goals and priorities?"

"Hey, can you create a bullet-point list of the most important parts of this article? [Article]

Summary

• Artificial intelligence (AI) can revolutionize medical education and provide tools to learn more efficiently and effectively.
• AI can analyze vast amounts of data and quickly identify patterns and insights humans cannot uncover.
• AI tools can create question banks like those found on medical exams, providing students with the practice they need to succeed.
• AI can provide personalized feedback, highlighting areas where students need to focus their attention and providing recommendations for further study.
• ChatGPT is an AI-powered language model that medical students can use to study medicine more efficiently.
• To avoid inaccuracies in the generated practice questions, medical students can insert parts of their notes or textbooks into ChatGPT to provide additional context.
• ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for generating practice questions from books and for clinical case practice right before exams and during clinical rotations.
• Medical students can use ChatGPT to create a personalized study schedule by determining their goals and priorities. ChatGPT can suggest study topics, provide resources, and offer tips on studying effectively.
• It is important to be realistic with your time when creating a study schedule and monitor your progress to make adjustments to the generated study plan as needed.

Postscriptum

• It is important to note that while AI can be a powerful tool, it should not replace traditional methods of learning such as lectures, textbooks, and clinical experiences. Rather, AI should be used as a supplement to enhance and improve the learning process.
• When using ChatGPT to create practice questions, it is important to ensure that the questions are not too easy or too difficult. If the questions are too easy, students may not be challenged and may not be adequately prepared for exams. If the questions are too difficult, students may become discouraged and frustrated, which can negatively impact their learning experience.
• While ChatGPT can provide personalized feedback, it is also important for students to seek feedback from human instructors. Human feedback can provide a different perspective and help students better understand complex concepts.
• Considering the ethical implications of using AI in medical education is important. For example, bias can be introduced into AI models if the training data is not diverse or representative. It is important to ensure that AI tools are developed and used ethically and responsibly.
• As AI and technology continue to advance, it is important for medical students to continue to adapt and learn how to use new tools and technologies. This can help them stay competitive in the job market and provide high-quality care to their patients.

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