Can ChatGPT Help General Practitioners Become Acquainted with Conversations About Dying? A Simulated Single-Case Study.

Background/

Objectives

General practitioners (GPs) should be able to initiate open conversations about death with their patients. It is hypothesized that a change in attitude regarding discussions of death with patients may be accomplished through doctors' training, particularly with the use of artificial intelligence (AI). This study aimed to evaluate whether OpenAI's ChatGPT can simulate a medical communication scenario involving a GP consulting a patient who is dying at home.

Methods

ChatGPT-4o was prompted to generate a medical communication scenario in which a GP consults with a patient dying at home. ChatGPT-4o was instructed to follow seven predefined steps from an evidence-based model for discussing dying with patients and their family caregivers. The output was assessed by comparing each step of the conversation to the model's recommendations.

Results

ChatGPT-4o created a seven-step scenario based on the initial prompt and addressed almost all intended recommendations. However, two points were not addressed: ChatGPT-4o did not use terms like "dying", "passing away", or "death", although the concept was present from the beginning of the conversation with the patient. Additionally, cultural and religious backgrounds related to dying and death were not discussed.

Conclusions

ChatGPT-4o can be used as a supportive tool for introducing GPs to the language and sequencing of speech acts that form a successful foundation for meaningful, sensitive conversations about dying, without requiring advanced technical resources and without placing any burden on real patients.