Revolutionizing Patient Education with “X-Plain Health AI”

Imagine a world where every patient's educational journey is uniquely tailored to their health needs, language, and learning style. This is not a distant dream but a present reality, thanks to the groundbreaking advancements in AI with “X-Plain Health AI,” a custom GPT app redefining the landscape of patient education. How is this innovative technology transforming how we understand and interact with healthcare information? Let's explore the future, which is already here.

What are Custom GPTs? Custom GPTs are a specialized iteration of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer models designed specifically for targeted applications. Unlike general-purpose models like ChatGPT, custom GPTs are fine-tuned with specific datasets, tailored instructions, and integrated functionalities to cater to particular needs. This specialization enables them to produce outputs that are highly adaptive and aligned with specific objectives, making them invaluable in fields like patient education.

Traditional vs. AI-based Patient Education

In traditional settings, patient education relies on printed materials, videos, and digital resources, which often fall short in addressing the diverse needs of patients. These methods, while informative, lack the personalization necessary for effective healthcare communication. Custom GPTs revolutionize this domain by offering tailored, dynamic, and interactive educational content. This AI-driven approach aligns with individual health conditions, literacy levels, and cultural backgrounds, enhancing patient understanding, engagement, and adherence to medical guidance.

Consider the case of Laila, a 52-year-old woman recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. She's overwhelmed with the flood of generic information available online. That's where 'X-Plain Health AI' comes in. Unlike traditional GPT models like ChatGPT, our custom GPT is fine-tuned with vast medical data. When Laila uses X-Plain Health AI, she receives personalized information. The system adjusts the complexity of the language to match her understanding and even considers her cultural background. This means Laila gets tailored advice on managing her diabetes, dietary recommendations suited to her lifestyle, and explanations of medical terms in a way she can easily comprehend. It's like having a virtual health educator, always ready to provide information that’s specifically relevant to her, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

X-Plain Health AI

Custom GPTs for patient education can generate detailed, specific information about a patient's condition and treatment options, adjust the complexity of the language to suit the patient's literacy level, facilitate interactive learning sessions for heightened engagement, and offer materials in multiple languages, considering cultural nuances.

Released on February 5, 2024, X-Plain Health AI is a pioneering custom GPT model developed by the Patient Education Institute. Accessible through the ChatGPT Store, it promises unprecedented personalization in patient education. What does “X-Plain Health AI” offer beyond what ChatGPT can do? Some key features include:

• Prompting users to set their preferences for language, content depth, difficulty level, and other parameters.

• Ask users to select a health topic, then offer targeted questions to refine information to specific interests like causes, symptoms, alternative treatments, risks, coping strategies, support options, and more.
• Adjusting the complexity of the text according to the user’s preferences and previous interactions.
• Engage with users to explain complex terms, present statistics, or compare treatment options tailored to their specific requests.
• Asking questions to verify understanding.
• Using our extensive database of peer-reviewed, up-to-date content, which includes over 25 million words, a video library with over 2,500 videos, and 2,500 interactive quizzes for comprehension testing, ensuring that users receive up-to-date information in their preferred educational format.
• Upon the user’s request, display one of our +10,000 illustrations and +100,000 slides to show diagrams and anatomical and procedural illustrations (in progress).

Here is a scenario illustrating how X-Plain Health AI interacts with a user: John, a 40-year-old man, logs into X-Plain Health AI.

—????? X-Plain Health AI: "Hello! How may I assist you today? Do you have any specific health topics or questions in mind? Also, would you like me to address you by a name?”

—????? John: “You can call me John. I want to learn about managing high blood pressure.”

—????? X-Plain Health AI: “Welcome, John! To provide you with personalized information about managing high blood pressure, I have a few questions for you. First, what is your preferred language for communication?"

—????? John: "English, please."

—????? X-Plain Health AI: "Great, English it is. How would you rate your understanding of high blood pressure management on a scale from 1 to 5?"

—????? John: "Probably around a 2."

—????? X-Plain Health AI: "Understood, we'll keep things straightforward. Are you seeking information on causes, symptoms, complications, diet, exercise, medication, or all of these topics?"

—????? John: "Mostly diet and exercise."

—????? X-Plain Health AI: "Okay. I can provide dietary guidelines and exercise tips that effectively manage high blood pressure. Before we proceed, do you have any dietary restrictions or physical limitations I should be aware of?"

—????? John: "I'm a vegetarian and have a knee injury, so nothing too strenuous."

—????? X-Plain Health AI: "Thanks for sharing that, John. I'll tailor the information accordingly. [Provides tailored advice on a vegetarian diet and low-impact exercises suitable for someone with a knee injury]. Would you like me to ask a few questions to ensure you've understood the information clearly?"

—????? John: "Yes, that would be helpful."

—????? X-Plain Health AI: "Alright, let's start with a simple one: Can you name two vegetables that are particularly beneficial for managing high blood pressure?"

—????? John: [Responds with his answers]

—????? X-Plain Health AI: "That's correct! [Provides feedback on his answers]. Let’s try another question to see how you’re doing with the exercise recommendations."

Challenges and Considerations

The deployment of custom GPTs in patient education presents challenges, particularly in privacy and information accuracy. Ensuring compliance with healthcare privacy laws, such as HIPAA, and maintaining the accuracy of the information provided by these AI models are of utmost importance. It's crucial to continually remind users that AI-generated content should be seen as supplementary to professional medical advice, not a replacement.

In OpenAI's custom GPT environment, users have control over their data. If they permit ChatGPT to learn from their interactions, the chats with custom GPTs remain private and are not shared with the creators. A key challenge is ensuring GPT models adhere to healthcare privacy laws like HIPAA. ChatGPT and custom GPT models consistently remind users not to share any personally identifiable information during conversations. Users also have the option to adjust their settings to prevent ChatGPT from retaining their chat history. However, these settings may not be straightforward and could be inadvertently altered during updates or when opting into new services. In addition, the field is rapidly developing, and so are OpenAI’s privacy and data training policies.

Two years following the launch of X-Plain in 1995, we established a clear distinction between Clinical X-Plain and Public X-Plain. Clinical X-Plain serves a crucial role in clinical environments, offering informed consent, discharge instructions, and specific guidance on medications and home care directly to patients. In contrast, Public X-Plain is a patient education resource available on healthcare institutions' websites, assisting patients in learning about and preparing for clinical visits. In this context, X-Plain Health AI is envisioned as a public-facing tool accessible online to aid patients in understanding and preparing for healthcare encounters. It is distinct from the discharge documents that healthcare providers typically hand to patients following outpatient, inpatient, or emergency room visits.

Monetization

The introduction of the GPT Store by OpenAI marks a significant shift in the landscape of AI application development. Like an app store for AI technologies, this platform allows creators to publish and potentially monetize their GPT models. Although still in its infancy, the revenue-sharing model indicates a promising avenue for creators to benefit financially from their innovative AI solutions in healthcare.

What do we know so far? OpenAI covers the cost of tokens for GPTs in the OpenAI GPT Store. This means neither the user nor the creator of a custom GPT bears the token cost. However, access to the GPT Store and its features is limited to ChatGPT Plus Subscribers and OpenAI Enterprise customers.?

The monetization model for OpenAI's GPT Store is still unspecified and vague.? OpenAI states that it will involve revenue sharing with creators, where creators are paid based on the usage and utility of their custom GPTs. Initially, the revenue model may start with a straightforward revenue share, the specifics of which are yet to be detailed. Later, there might be options for subscription-based access to individual GPTs, depending on demand.

These monetization policies are dynamic and tentative; for the most current monetization models, check OpenAI's official website.

Our patient education solutions are exclusively licensed to healthcare institutions and stakeholders, not directly to patients. However, with OpenAI's proposed model for monetization, we are poised to indirectly offer X-Plain Health AI to patients and individual users for the first time, a departure from our traditional approach of licensing only to healthcare service providers. Given the importance of ensuring accuracy and privacy, we will maintain X-Plain Health AI as a public patient education tool rather than a clinical one until these critical factors are fully guaranteed.

The Future

Looking ahead, the potential of AI in patient education is immense. Future developments in custom GPTs are expected to include a deeper understanding of language nuances, more sophisticated bias mitigation techniques, and enhanced integration with other applications.

Regarding its integration with other applications, future custom GPT models for patient education will offer capabilities such as:

• Seamlessly combining several aspects of patient care, including treatment planning, patient education, and follow-up care.
• Dynamically adapting educational content in real-time based on the user's preferences, interaction style, and updates in their health records.
• Utilize predictive analytics to identify potential health risks and deliver tailored educational content to patients accordingly.
• Enhancing patient engagement and understanding using augmented reality in educational materials.

Final Notes

As custom AI models like X-Plain Health AI evolve, it’s crucial to steer their integration and governance in patient engagement proactively. To ensure these advancements serve the best interests of all involved, consider the following:

• Healthcare thought leaders should commit to ongoing research and develop oversight processes. Regular evaluations of custom GPTs for accuracy, privacy protection, and clinical effectiveness are essential. This continuous monitoring facilitates responsible innovation that truly benefits patients.
• Policymakers must act promptly to establish data governance laws specifically for healthcare AI. These regulations should balance patient rights protection with the encouragement of empowering innovations.?
• Patients should be encouraged to learn about and use AI-powered educational tools. They need to recognize that, while valuable, these tools are not replacements for professional medical advice.

By fostering frameworks that promote accountability in tandem with technological advancement, we can revolutionize how individuals learn about and manage their health.

As we stand on the brink of a new healthcare age, X-Plain Health AI represents a pivotal shift from one-size-fits-all to a world where patient education is as adapted as a tailored suit.