Compiled | Zheng Liyuan
Listing | CSDN (ID: CSDNnews)
Coding, translating, copywriting, writing novels... these common uses of ChatGPT have long been familiar to people, and now someone has discovered a new use: letting ChatGPT diagnose illnesses.
A foreign mother, Courtney, shared that her 4-year-old child, Alex, had seen 17 doctors in 3 years due to chronic pain, but none of them could explain the specific cause of the pain - until Courtney registered ChatGPT and transferred Alex to After uploading his condition, he finally got the correct diagnosis.
After 3 years and 17 doctors, the exact cause could not be found.
Three years ago during the lockdown period, Courtney was worried that her children would be bored at home, so she bought an inflatable trampoline. However, it wasn’t long before her son Alex began to suffer from body aches and had to take Motrin (an active ingredient ibuprofen) every day. brand) will not hurt you to the point of losing your temper.
Later, when Alex started chewing, Courtney suspected that the pain was caused by his molars growing in or having cavities, so she took him to the dentist. But the dentist ruled out these causes, thinking that Alex might just be grinding his teeth, and recommended Courtney to an orthodontist who specializes in treating airway obstruction—the dentist believed that airway obstruction affects sleep and may cause the child to be tired and moody.
After an examination, the orthodontist said that Alex's upper jaw was too small for his mouth and teeth, which would make it difficult for him to breathe at night, so the doctor recommended installing an expander on Alex's upper jaw.
"The situation seems to be getting better, everything is better." Courtney thought that the matter would end there, but she later discovered that Alex had not grown taller for a long time, and even the development of his left and right feet seemed to be somewhat unbalanced: Alex always used his right foot. Walk in front, then drag your left foot.
For this problem, Courtney took Alex to see a pediatrician. The doctor speculated that Alex's developmental problems may have been affected by the epidemic. Although Courtney disagreed with this statement, she followed the advice of her pediatrician and had Alex receive physical therapy to correct the imbalance between his left and right feet.
At the same time, Alex also suffered from severe headaches, so Courtney took him to see a neurologist, who found out that Alex suffered from migraines. She also took him to see an otolaryngologist to confirm whether Alex's frequent fatigue Sleep disorders are caused by sinus cavities or airways.
However, neither dentistry, paediatrics, neurology, nor otolaryngology could find the real cause of Alex's symptoms such as pain and fatigue. In this regard, Courtney felt very powerless: "No matter how many doctors we saw, they would only focus on their area of expertise. No one was willing to solve the larger problem or even tell us what the diagnosis was."
By chance, a physical therapist told Courtney that Alex might be suffering from a condition called "Chiari malformation" - a congenital disease that causes abnormalities in the brain where the skull and spine meet. Courtney began researching this and took Alex to more doctors: a new pediatrician, a pediatric internist, an adult internist, and a musculoskeletal doctor, but still nothing came of it.
Courtney counted that in the past three years, they had taken Alex to see 17 different doctors, but they had never found a cause that could explain all his symptoms. Exhausted, Courtney signed up for ChatGPT a few months ago, hoping that AI could Provide some useful information.
After entering the medical information, ChatGPT discovered the cause!
After successfully registering for ChatGPT, Courtney transferred all the information she knew about Alex’s symptoms and MRI images to ChatGPT: “I looked at everything in Alex (the MRI recording) line by line, and then put Its all fed into ChatGPT."
As a result, this seemingly unreliable method actually gave the answer: combined with the medical information entered by Courtney, ChatGPT diagnosed her as tethered cord syndrome.
"This diagnosis makes a lot of sense." After learning about this possibility, Courtney quickly went to Facebook to search for relevant information and joined a family group for children with the disease. The patients' experiences in the group sounded almost exactly like Alex's.
So this time, Courtney made an appointment with a new neurosurgeon and told him outright that Alex might have tethered cord syndrome. After viewing Alex's MRI images, the doctor confirmed her statement: Alex indeed suffered from tethered cord syndrome.
According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, tethered cord syndrome occurs when spinal cord tissue forms attachments that restrict the movement of the spinal cord, causing the spinal cord to stretch abnormally. Symptoms include shuffling, body aches, scoliosis, Deformities of the feet or legs, and developmental delays such as sitting up and walking. This condition is closely related to spina bifida, a congenital defect in which part of the spinal cord is underdeveloped, resulting in parts of the spinal cord and nerves being exposed.
Simply put, tethered cord syndrome means "the spinal cord is stuck to something." This thing may be a tumor in the spinal canal, it may be a bulge on a bone spur, or it may simply be too much fat at the end of the spinal cord. One pediatric neurosurgeon explained: "Once the abnormal area cannot stretch...then pulling occurs."
Typically, doctors detect these conditions soon after birth, but certain signs that may indicate spina bifida occulta, such as a dimple, a red spot or a tuft of hair, can easily be missed - Alex is "Hidden" spina bifida was difficult to diagnose because he couldn't pinpoint it because he was still a toddler.
Fortunately, with ChatGPT's reminder, the pain that had plagued Alex for three years finally found its source. After being diagnosed with tethered cord syndrome, Alex quickly underwent surgery and is well into recovery. Courtney lamented that she could finally see true relief and joy on Alex's face.
Nonetheless, currently ChatGPT cannot replace clinicians
There is no doubt that for Courtney and Alex, this ChatGPT has undoubtedly made a great contribution. Andrew Beam, Ph.D., assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard University who studies machine learning models and medicine, also commented after learning about this incident: "This (ChatGPT) is a super powerful medical search engine."
Andrew Beam believes that ChatGPT learns from the large amount of text data existing on the Internet and reads the entire Internet, so it may have "no blind spots like human doctors." Especially for patients with complex conditions where diagnosis is difficult to obtain, ChatGPT may be a better diagnostic tool than a typical symptom checker or Google.
However, Andrew Beam also emphasized that currently ChatGPT cannot quickly replace the expertise of clinicians because it may "make up information" when it cannot find the answer. For example, if someone asks ChatGPT about research on influenza, it will come up with several plausible-sounding titles and even list authors, but the papers may not actually exist. "This 'hallucination' phenomenon is a big concern when we start discussing the medical applications of ChatGPT."
Dr. Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, President of the American Medical Association, also mentioned that although AI products show great promise in helping to reduce the burden on doctors, both ChatGPT and other generative AI products currently have limitations and Safety issues, this will bring potential risks to doctors and patients, and should be used with caution.
Original link: https://www.today.com/health/mom-chatgpt-diagnosis-pain-rcna101843
