Healthcare's New Horizon With ChatGPT's Voice and Vision Capabilities: A Leap Beyond Text.

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare is responsible for a paradigm shift in medicine. OpenAI's recent augmentation of their Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) large language model (LLM) with voice and image recognition capabilities (OpenAI, Delaware) presents another potential transformative tool for healthcare. Envision a healthcare setting where professionals engage in dynamic interactions with ChatGPT to navigate the complexities of atypical medical scenarios. In this innovative landscape, practitioners could solicit ChatGPT's expertise for concise summarizations and insightful extrapolations from a myriad of web-based resources pertaining to similar medical conditions. Furthermore, imagine patients using ChatGPT to identify abnormalities in medical images or skin lesions. While the prospects are diverse, challenges such as suboptimal audio quality and ensuring data security necessitate cautious integration in medical practice. Drawing insights from previous ChatGPT iterations could provide a prudent roadmap for navigating possible challenges. This editorial explores some possible horizons and potential hurdles of ChatGPT's enhanced functionalities in healthcare, emphasizing the importance of continued refinements and vigilance to maximize the benefits while minimizing risks. Through collaborative efforts between AI developers and healthcare professionals, another fusion of AI and healthcare can evolve into enriched patient care and enhanced medical experience.

ChatGPT and the Future of Digital Health: A Study on Healthcare Workers' Perceptions and Expectations.

This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and intended practices of healthcare workers (HCWs) in Saudi Arabia towards ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) Chatbot, within the first three months after its launch. We also aimed to identify potential barriers to AI Chatbot adoption among healthcare professionals. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1057 HCWs in Saudi Arabia, distributed electronically via social media channels from 21 February to 6 March 2023. The survey evaluated HCWs' familiarity with ChatGPT-3.5, their satisfaction, intended future use, and perceived usefulness in healthcare practice. Of the respondents, 18.4% had used ChatGPT for healthcare purposes, while 84.1% of non-users expressed interest in utilizing AI Chatbots in the future. Most participants (75.1%) were comfortable with incorporating ChatGPT into their healthcare practice. HCWs perceived the Chatbot to be useful in various aspects of healthcare, such as medical decision-making (39.5%), patient and family support (44.7%), medical literature appraisal (48.5%), and medical research assistance (65.9%). A majority (76.7%) believed ChatGPT could positively impact the future of healthcare systems. Nevertheless, concerns about credibility and the source of information provided by AI Chatbots (46.9%) were identified as the main barriers. Although HCWs recognize ChatGPT as a valuable addition to digital health in the early stages of adoption, addressing concerns regarding accuracy, reliability, and medicolegal implications is crucial. Therefore, due to their unreliability, the current forms of ChatGPT and other Chatbots should not be used for diagnostic or treatment purposes without human expert oversight. Ensuring the trustworthiness and dependability of AI Chatbots is essential for successful implementation in healthcare settings. Future research should focus on evaluating the clinical outcomes of ChatGPT and benchmarking its performance against other AI Chatbots.

Enhancing parental knowledge of childhood and adolescence safety: An interventional educational campaign.

BACKGROUND: Safeguarding children and adolescents from unintentional injuries is a significant concern for parents and caregivers. With them staying more at home during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, more educational tools and valid educational programs are warranted to improve parental knowledge and awareness about childhood and adolescences' safety. This study aims to explore the effectiveness of childhood and adolescence safety campaigns on parents' knowledge and attitude toward preventable injuries. METHODS: This was a pre-post experimental study, in which the predesigned assessments were used as an evaluation tool before and after attending a childhood and adolescence safety campaign. The pre-post assessment question included questions to evaluate the socio-demographic status, followed by knowledge questions in line with the current childhood and adolescence safety campaign. The outcomes of interest were assessed before and after attending the campaign's stations. RESULTS: Three hundred eight parents volunteered to participate in this study. Their knowledge score improved from 36.2 [standard deviation (SD) 17.7] to 79.3 (SD 15.6) after attending the Campaign (t value = 34.6, P < .001). Both, perceptions on the preventability of accidents and the parents' perceived usefulness of educational campaigns showed improvements, with (t value = 6.3, P < .001) and (t value = 3.097, P < .001), respectively. CONCLUSION: The educational childhood and adolescence safety campaign for caregivers in Saudi Arabia resulted in a significant increase in the overall knowledge and attitudes toward childhood and adolescence's safety. As children and adolescents are currently staying at home more, additional educational tools and programs are warranted to promote safe practices among parents and caregivers.

Pediatric Intensive Care Hybrid-Style Clinical Round During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Pilot Study.

Objectives: With the evolving COVID-19 pandemic and the emphasis on social distancing to decrease the spread of SARS-CoV-2 among healthcare workers (HCWs), our pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) piloted the integration of Zoom meetings into clinical rounds. We aimed to explore the feasibility of these hybrid virtual and physical clinical rounds for PICU patients. Design: Mixed quantitative and qualitative deductive thematic content analysis of narrative responses. Setting: PICU, single tertiary-care academic center. Participants: Multidisciplinary PICU HCWs. Interventions: Integration of Zoom meeting into clinical daily PICU rounds. Measurements: For the quantitative part, we gathered the details of daily PICU hybrid rounds in terms of times, number of HCWs, and type of files shared through Zoom. For the qualitative part, open-ended questions were used. Main Results: The physical round took statistically significantly less time (34.68 ± 14.842 min) as compared with the Zoom round (72.45 ± 22.59 min), p < 0.001. The most shared component in the virtual round was chest X-rays (93.5%). Thirty-one HCWs participated in focus group discussions and were included in the analysis. Some of the HCWs' perceived advantages of the hybrid rounds were enabling multidisciplinary discussions, fewer round interruptions, and practicality of virtual discussions. The perceived challenges were the difficulty of the bedside nurse attending the virtual round, decreased teaching opportunities for the trainees, and decreased interactions among the team members, especially if video streaming was not utilized. Conclusions: Multidisciplinary hybrid virtual and physical clinical rounds in the PICU were perceived as feasible by HCWs. The virtual rounds decreased the physical contact between the HCWs, which could decrease the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 spread among the treating team. Still, several components of the hybrid round should be optimized to facilitate the virtual team-members' interactions and enhance the teaching experience.

Virtual Handover of Patients in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit During the Covid-19 Crisis.

OBJECTIVE: A key measure to mitigate coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been social distancing. Incorporating video-conferencing applications in the patient handover process between healthcare workers can enhance social distancing while maintaining handover elements. This study describes pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) physicians' experience using an online video-conferencing application for handover during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN: Qualitative content analysis. SETTING: PICU at a university hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. SUBJECTS: PICU Physicians. INTERVENTIONS: Due to the pandemic, the hospital's PICU used Zoom® as a remote conferencing application instead of a face-to-face handover. Following institutional review board approval, data were collected over two weeks (1 Jul 2020 to 14 Jul 2020). MEASUREMENTS: An online survey was conducted using open-ended questions to capture demographic data and the perceived efficacy of remote handovers. Thematic framework analysis process included open coding, creating categories, and abstraction. MAIN RESULTS: All 37 PICU physicians who participated in the handover completed the survey. The participants comprised six attendings, nine specialists, and 22 residents. While 20 (54.1%) physicians reported attending 1-5 Zoom handovers by the time of the study, some (n. 6, 16.2%) had more than ten virtual handovers. They had variable previous teleconferencing experiences. Most physicians (78.4%) were comfortable conducting a remote handover. Most found that Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation handover elements were properly achieved through this remote handover process. The perceived advantages of online handover included fewer interruptions, time efficiency, and facilitation of social distancing. The perceived disadvantages were the paucity of nonverbal communication and teaching during virtual meetings. CONCLUSION: Video-conferencing applications for online handovers could supplement traditional face-to-face intensive care unit patient handover during outbreaks of infectious diseases. The use of video streaming and more emphasis on teaching should be encouraged to optimize the users' experience.

SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 UK Variant of Concern Lineage-Related Perceptions, COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance and Travel Worry Among Healthcare Workers.

Background: Healthcare workers' (HCWs') travel-related anxiety needs to be assessed in light of the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 mutations. Methods: An online, cross-sectional questionnaire among HCWs between December 21, 2020 to January 7, 2021. The outcome variables were HCWs' knowledge and awareness of the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 lineage that was recently reported as the UK variant of concern, and its associated travel worry and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) score. Results: A total of 1,058 HCWs completed the survey; 66.5% were female, 59.0% were nurses. 9.0% indicated they had been previously diagnosed with COVID-19. Regarding the B.1.1.7 lineage, almost all (97.3%) were aware of its emergence, 73.8% were aware that it is more infectious, 78.0% thought it causes more severe disease, and only 50.0% knew that current COVID-19 vaccines are effective in preventing it. Despite this, 66.7% of HCWs were not registered to receive the vaccine. HCWs' most common source of information about the new variant was social media platforms (67.0%), and this subgroup was significantly more worried about traveling. Nurses were more worried than physicians (P = 0.001). Conclusions: Most HCWs were aware of the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 variant and expressed substantial travel worries. Increased worry levels were found among HCWs who used social media as their main source of information, those with lower levels of COVID-19 vaccine uptake, and those with higher GAD-7 scores. The utilization of official social media platforms could improve accurate information dissemination among HCWs regarding the Pandemic's evolving mutations. Targeted vaccine campaigns are warranted to assure HCWs about the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines toward SARS-CoV-2 variants.