This article, titled “ChatGPT in healthcare education: a double-edged sword of trends, challenges, and opportunities,” is a scoping review by Michael Agyemang Adarkwah, Samuel Anokye Badu, Evans Appiah Osei, Enoch Adu-Gyamfi, Jonathan Odame, and Käthe Schneider. Published in Discover Education in 2025, the review explores the impact of ChatGPT on healthcare education and identifies future research directions by investigating its trends, challenges, and opportunities.
The authors conducted this scoping review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement and a five-stage framework. They utilized a comprehensive search strategy with terms such as “ChatGPT,” “GPT,” “natural language processing,” “large language models,” and “health education” across various scientific databases including Web of Science, PubMed, CINAHL, SCOPUS, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. Out of an initial 400 retrieved papers, 33 were ultimately selected for final analysis. The inclusion criteria specifically focused on full-text, English, peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2023 and 2024 that directly addressed ChatGPT’s role in healthcare education.
The review highlights that Generative AI (GenAI) tools like ChatGPT can significantly enhance teaching, learning, and research in healthcare education. Key opportunities and trends identified include:
- Enhancing pedagogy and fostering immersive learning.
- Serving as a virtual tutor that is accessible, personalized, and scalable, adapting to individual learning needs and aiding in the comprehension of complex medical concepts.
- Simulating patient interactions and clinical scenarios, providing crucial hands-on training, especially beneficial where clinical access is limited.
- Integrating multimedia like images, videos, and diagrams to make learning more engaging and accessible.
- Offering multilingual capabilities to address language barriers and extend education to underserved communities.
- Fostering personalized learning experiences useful for tasks like writing papers, abstracts, and discharge summaries.
- Enhancing scientific writing and healthcare research efficiency.
- Increasing classroom engagement, reducing educator workload, optimizing learning experiences, and improving health literacy.
- Providing personalized recommendations for aspects like nutrition, exercise, and psychological support.
Despite these advantages, the review underscores that the utilization of AI tools in healthcare education remains contentious and presents several significant challenges and risks:
- Ethical and legal issues are prominent, including concerns around data privacy and confidentiality, especially given the extensive learner data often required for AI model training.
- Potential for inaccurate information, error messages, and biased language generated by ChatGPT due to its reliance on diverse datasets that may contain outdated or biased content.
- Concerns regarding academic integrity, potential for over-reliance on AI, and negative impacts on critical thinking—a key element in healthcare education.
- Language, cultural, and economic disparities globally, as ChatGPT’s primary training in English may lead to a lack of contextual nuance and inadequate addressing of regional healthcare practices.
- Accessibility and infrastructure challenges, particularly in developing regions or rural areas, where limited internet connectivity can exacerbate educational inequalities.
- The subscription-based model for advanced ChatGPT versions may further widen the digital gap.
- The generalized feedback offered by ChatGPT, unlike human instructors, may restrict personalized learning crucial for tailored growth.
- The potential for job displacement and social disparities if AI replaces human instructors, along with a reduction in social interaction vital to healthcare education.
The study also notes that research on ChatGPT’s applications in healthcare education is largely concentrated in developed countries, particularly the United States (15.2%) and China (12.1%), which are leaders in AI investment and research. There is a limited presence of studies from the African region. Furthermore, most studies are qualitative or review-based (48.5% literature reviews, 24.2% qualitative), indicating a need for more empirical, quantitative, and experimental research to robustly evaluate ChatGPT’s effectiveness, especially in clinical and educational settings. A significant research gap was identified in areas like cardiology.
In conclusion, while ChatGPT offers transformative potential for healthcare education, its implementation requires careful consideration and proactive solutions to address digital accessibility, data privacy, and cultural sensitivity, particularly in developing regions. The authors emphasize the need for further research and strategic, collaborative approaches to ensure ChatGPT complements human-led teaching and nurtures skilled healthcare professionals.
Adarkwah, M. A., Badu, S. A., Osei, E. A., Adu-Gyamfi, E., Odame, J., & Schneider, K. (2025). ChatGPT in healthcare education: a double-edged sword of trends, challenges, and opportunities. Discover Education, 4(14). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-024-00393-3
