Impact of ChatGPT on Teleconsultants in Healthcare: Perceptions of Healthcare Experts in Saudi Arabia

PURPOSE: This study aims to investigate the impact of ChatGPT on teleconsultants in managing their operations and services. METHODS: A qualitative approach with focus groups is adopted in this study. A total of 54 participants with varying degrees of experience using AI such as ChatGPT in healthcare, including 11 physicians, 24 nurses, eight dieticians, six pharmacists, and five physiotherapists providing teleconsultations participated in this study. RESULTS: Twelve themes including informational support, diagnostic assistance, communication, enhancing efficiency, cost and time saving, personalizing care, multilingual support, assisting in medical research, decision-making, documentation, continuing education, and enhanced team collaboration reflecting positive impact were identified from the data analysis of seven focus groups. In addition, six themes including misdiagnosis and errors, issues in personalized care, ethical and legal issues, limited medical context/knowledge, communication challenges, and increased dependency reflecting negative impact were identified. CONCLUSION: Although ChatGPT has several advantages for teleconsultants in the healthcare sector, it is associated with ethical issues.