A researcher at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) is discovering new ways for veterinarians to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the clinic and the classroom.

Dr. Candice Chu, an assistant professor in the VMBS Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, has developed a study tool for veterinary students based on ChatGPT technology called VetClinPathGPT.

The tool aids students in learning clinical pathobiology, a field of veterinary medicine that focuses on disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Using the tool, students can "chat" with AI to ask questions about terms and concepts or even ask the tool to provide a list of study questions. 

According to Chu, AI is a powerful assistant that can help clinicians, educators, and students reduce their time on repetitive work. By reducing repetitive tasks, individuals can spend their time on the most important parts of their work, like completing assignments or helping students and patients.

AI and veterinary education

Chu believes AI will become a regular part of the veterinary medicine classroom. According to the researcher, veterinarians are in high demand, and it's good to have many students in the classroom. However, one instructor cannot work with every student individually at the same time, so in an ideal world, AI could help with that. 

For now, Chu is helping to bring AI to veterinary education by creating tools like VetClinPathGPT, which provides students with a virtual study partner. Educators can also use AI to reduce the time they spend on repetitive tasks like writing exam questions.

Chu also expects to start seeing AI used in clinical settings to help with tasks that take away time from working with patients. According to Chu, training AI tools to accurately read patient medical records would mean sharing medical records with a developer, which violates patient privacy laws. In Chu's opinion, it's only a matter of time before someone creates AI tools that meet the needs of hospitals, clinicians, and their patients.

Human-AI partnership

From Chu's perspective, using AI will always be a partnership between humans and artificial intelligence. She remarked that neither is perfect on its own, so combining them increases our ability to diagnose, teach, and learn.

Phys Org