The Role of AI-Generated Clinical Image Descriptions in Enhancing Teledermatology Diagnosis: A Cross-Sectional Exploratory Study

TL;DR

This study explores whether AI-generated image descriptions can help dermatologists make accurate diagnoses and be used in electronic medical records.

Contribution

The study evaluates the diagnostic value of AI-generated descriptions in teledermatology and their potential for EMR integration.

Findings

ChatGPT-4's descriptions were longer but did not improve diagnostic accuracy compared to teledermatologist notes.

Dermatologists achieved high Top 3 concordance rates using both AI and human-generated descriptions.

AI descriptions showed potential for enhancing documentation in electronic medical records.

Abstract

Background/Objectives: AI models such as ChatGPT-4 have shown strong performance in dermatology; however, the diagnostic value of AI-generated clinical image descriptions remains underexplored. This study assesses whether ChatGPT-4’s image descriptions can support accurate dermatologic diagnosis and evaluates their potential integration into the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system. Materials & Methods: In this Exploratory cross-sectional study, we analyzed images and descriptions from teledermatology consultations conducted between December 2023 and February 2024. ChatGPT-4 generated clinical descriptions for each image, which two senior dermatologists then used to formulate differential diagnoses. Diagnoses based on ChatGPT-4’s output were compared to those derived from the original clinical notes written by teledermatologists. Concordance was categorized as Top1 (exact match), Top3 (correct within top three), Partial, or No match. Results: The study included 154 image descriptions from 67 male and 87 female patients, aged 0 to 93 years. ChatGPT-4 descriptions averaged 74.3 ± 33.1 words, compared to 7.9 ± 3.0 words for teledermatologists. At least one of the two dermatologists achieved a Top 3 concordance rate of 82.5% using ChatGPT-4’s descriptions and 85.3% with teledermatologist descriptions. Conclusions: Preliminary findings highlight the potential integration of ChatGPT-4-generated descriptions into EMRs to enhance documentation. Although AI descriptions were longer, they did not enhance diagnostic accuracy, and expert validation remained essential.

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