With the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the healthcare industry is gradually integrating large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4 into the clinical decision-making process. A recent study published in Nature Medicine showed that GPT-4 was able to significantly improve physicians’ performance in management reasoning, with physicians using GPT-4-assisted GPT-4 performing better in diagnostic accuracy, treatment plan development, and overall decision-making quality than physicians using only traditional resources.
How does GPT-4 improve medical decision-making?
In clinical practice, physicians often need to make trade-offs between diagnosis and treatment options, not only in terms of the complexity of the disease itself, but also in terms of individual patient risk, treatment efficacy, and cost-effectiveness. Managerial reasoning is a high-level clinical thinking model, and GPT-4’s powerful language processing and reasoning capabilities enable it to assist physicians in making decisions faster and more accurately.
A recent study published in Nature Medicine used a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design to recruit 92 medical practitioners and divide them into two groups: one group using GPT-4 to assist traditional medical resources, and the other group using only traditional medical resources. The results showed that the physicians who used GPT-4 scored significantly higher in the five expert-designed clinical case solving (an average improvement of 6.5%, P < 0.001), which proves that AI can effectively improve the quality of clinical decision-making.
Reduce diagnostic errors and improve medical efficiency
Medical errors are a major challenge for healthcare systems around the world, especially during the diagnostic process, where a single wrong decision can lead to serious consequences. GPT-4 is able to reduce the risk of misdiagnosis by analyzing large amounts of medical data, providing diagnostic recommendations, and combining them with the experience of physicians. For example, in the study’s clinical simulation tests, GPT-4-assisted physicians were able to more accurately identify rare diseases, which is critical for improving patient outcomes.
In addition, the study found that while physicians using GPT-4 took longer to respond to each case (an average increase of 119.3 seconds, P = 0.02), this additional time investment translated into more precise decision-making. This shows that the use of AI to assist decision-making in the clinical setting may increase the time of initial diagnosis, but ultimately improve the accuracy of diagnosis and the treatment outcome of patients.
Automate administrative tasks and enhance physician expertise
In addition to directly influencing diagnosis and treatment decisions, GPT-4 can also play a key role in medical administration. For example, GPT-4 can significantly reduce the administrative burden on physicians in terms of medical records, prescription recommendations, and analysis of test results, allowing them to devote more time to patient care.
According to a report by the American Medical Association (AMA), physicians spend an average of more than 15 hours per week on paperwork, which not only affects the time it takes to see a doctor, but also reduces the patient experience. GPT-4 can automatically organize medical records, generate clinical summaries, and even provide clearer medical explanations in patient communication, allowing physicians to focus on critical clinical decisions.
The future of AI-assisted healthcare
Although GPT-4 has shown great potential for clinical applications, the technology still needs to be further validated to ensure its reliability and safety in real-world medical environments. The researchers highlighted that future research should focus on the following key areas:
- Real-world application validation: GPT-4 was tested in different healthcare settings to evaluate its performance in different specialties and healthcare settings.
- Ethical and regulatory considerations: Ensure that AI-assisted decision-making is medically ethical, and protect patient privacy and data security.
- Human-robot collaboration mode: Explore the best human-robot collaboration methods to enable GPT-4 to integrate seamlessly with the medical team, rather than completely replace the judgment of human physicians.
Clinical value and future challenges of GPT-4
The study, published in Nature Medicine, provides strong evidence for the use of AI in medical decision-making, showing that GPT-4 can significantly improve physicians’ diagnostic and treatment decision-making capabilities. For medical institutions and policymakers, how to integrate AI technologies such as GPT-4 into clinical practice to improve medical efficiency and patient care quality will become an important topic in the future.
References
Goh, E., Gallo, R.J., Strong, E. et al. GPT-4 assistance for improvement of physician performance on patient care tasks: a randomized controlled trial. Nat Med (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-03456-y
