Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37083633›Full record

ArticleJMIR medical education2023

Trialling a Large Language Model (ChatGPT) in General Practice With the Applied Knowledge Test: Observational Study Demonstrating Opportunities and Limitations in Primary Care.

Arun James Thirunavukarasu, Refaat Hassan, Shathar Mahmood, Rohan Sanghera, Kara Barzangi, Mohanned El Mukashfi, Sachin Shah

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in JMIR medical education, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 93 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
93citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

93 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
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  11. ChatGPT in precision medicine.APL bioengineering · 2026
    Review
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Chatbot To Help Patients Understand Their Health.Proceedings of the Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing. Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing · 2025
    Article
  15. From Scores to Steps: Diagnosing and Improving LLM Performance in Evidence-Based Medical Calculations.Proceedings of the Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing. Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing · 2025
    Article
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  17. Article
  18. Review
  19. ChatGPT versus DeepSeek in head and neck cancer staging and treatment planning: guideline-based study.European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery · 2025
    Article
  20. Article

33 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Arun James ThirunavukarasuUniversity of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, United Kingdom.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8968-4768
Refaat HassanUniversity of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, United Kingdom.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3054-1161
Shathar MahmoodUniversity of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, United Kingdom.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4209-1306
Rohan SangheraUniversity of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, United Kingdom.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6370-8426
Kara BarzangiUniversity of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, United Kingdom.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0327-1221
Mohanned El MukashfiUniversity of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, United Kingdom.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0001-8158-0216
Sachin ShahAttenborough Surgery, Bushey Medical Centre, Bushey, United Kingdom.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2470-6143

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundLarge language models exhibiting human-level performance in specialized tasks are emerging; examples include Generative Pretrained Transformer 3.5, which underlies the processing of ChatGPT. Rigorous trials are required to understand the capabilities of emerging technology, so that innovation can be directed to benefit patients and practitioners.

objectiveHere, we evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of ChatGPT in primary care using the Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners Applied Knowledge Test (AKT) as a medium.

methodsAKT questions were sourced from a web-based question bank and 2 AKT practice papers. In total, 674 unique AKT questions were inputted to ChatGPT, with the model's answers recorded and compared to correct answers provided by the Royal College of General Practitioners. Each question was inputted twice in separate ChatGPT sessions, with answers on repeated trials compared to gauge consistency. Subject difficulty was gauged by referring to examiners' reports from 2018 to 2022. Novel explanations from ChatGPT-defined as information provided that was not inputted within the question or multiple answer choices-were recorded. Performance was analyzed with respect to subject, difficulty, question source, and novel model outputs to explore ChatGPT's strengths and weaknesses.

resultsAverage overall performance of ChatGPT was 60.17%, which is below the mean passing mark in the last 2 years (70.42%). Accuracy differed between sources (P=.04 and .06). ChatGPT's performance varied with subject category (P=.02 and .02), but variation did not correlate with difficulty (Spearman ρ=-0.241 and -0.238; P=.19 and .20). The proclivity of ChatGPT to provide novel explanations did not affect accuracy (P>.99 and .23).

conclusionsLarge language models are approaching human expert-level performance, although further development is required to match the performance of qualified primary care physicians in the AKT. Validated high-performance models may serve as assistants or autonomous clinical tools to ameliorate the general practice workforce crisis.

Indexed as

AIartificial intelligencechatbotChatGPTdecision support techniquesdeep learningfamily medicinegeneral practicelarge language modelnatural language processingprimary care

Identifiers

PMID37083633
PMCPMC10163403

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.