It is impossible to ignore AI machine learning in medical education — not just ChatGPT. Nearly every medical program (with a few notable exceptions) are using AI in their education now. It will only become more prevalent as time goes on.
In the article below, we’ll cover how AI is being used, how it’s not being used, and what that means (benefits and concerns) for prospective med school students and future clinicians.
Let’s talk about how most medical colleges currently use AI, such as virtual training, studying (whether sanctioned or not), and personalized assessments.
Further down in this article, we’ll get into how they’re not using AI yet and how AI in medical education can benefit you.
In medical schools, AI is used for certain patient and clinical simulations so that students can practice patient communication and no-risk diagnosis or treatment. Students can develop empathy, professionalism, and clinical skills without real-world consequences of getting it wrong.
The major AI platforms for this virtual medical practice include MedSimAI and ChatClinic. With MedSimAI, students can chat with an AI patient about their symptoms. ChatClinic is an educational tool that simulates case studies using advanced AI.
Important stat: This 2024 study shows that AI systems can outperform physicians alone — and even physicians using AI — in diagnostic success. The authors conclude that physicians must be better trained on the effective use of AI.
AI is great for providing personalized feedback and assessment, although it isn’t perfect.
A big way AI is helping with student evaluation is the MSPE. The Medical School Performance Evaluation (MSPE) is a huge piece of your residency application. Typically, a school puts together an MSPE for each med student to show residency programs their academic and extracurricular strengths.
Some medical schools have started to compile MSPEs through AI. For example, the Miller School of Medicine trained an AI tool to summarize multiple narrative professor evaluations for each student. They emphasize that students may submit corrections, and the faculty has the final decision.
Real-world study: 2025 research finds that personalized AI feedback “enhances students’ clarity of goals, boosts their confidence, and increases their involvement in learning” all while fostering “a sense of mastery and control, improving both goal achievement and self-efficacy.”
Unlike their predecessors, modern medical students can study using AI chatbots, natural language processing programs, and deep learning tools. Of course, students must ensure they do not violate school policies.
ChatGPT and its medical equivalents can access every open-access full-text medical journal in an instant and regurgitate evidence-based medical knowledge in real time. That’s faster than students looking up keywords on Google Scholar, right?
Now, this method of medical training is fallible and prone to AI hallucinations. However, talking to an AI chatbot about what you’re studying can be a strong alternative to simply referencing your scribbled notes and skimming outdated textbooks.
Surprising data: A study from last year found that almost half of medical students regularly used ChatGPT to study and help them write essays, many preferring AI chatbots to consulting professors, lecture videos, or textbooks.
While many schools are using AI tools to train physicians, some schools are taking the extra step of offering courses on AI itself. Teaching students how to use AI ethically and effectively can improve their comprehension and confidence while training up future medical AI researchers.
Medical schools like George Washington and Stanford offer AI in medicine courses. Other schools of medicine are offering entire AI-focused degree programs, such as:
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Certain schools are intentionally limiting AI to preserve critical thinking. They’re avoiding AI-based technologies in exams and admissions to ensure fairness. Other schools are simply not changing their policies or curricula to adapt to the new AI-powered landscape.
A recent EDUCAUSE study found that a surprisingly low 14% of med schools have developed an official generative AI curriculum, compared with 60% of undergraduate colleges.
Robert Pearl, former CEO of Permanente Medical Group, said earlier this year that it’s a mistake for medical schools to view generative AI only as a tool for administrative tasks, instead of as a clinical tool that can save hundreds of thousands of lives lost to medical errors.
Of course, almost no one is advocating for med school students to have AI chatbots complete coursework and exams for them. That’s one way that (most) everyone can agree AI should not be used in medical education.
Read Next: Best Med Schools for Nontraditional Students
A few of the benefits of integrating artificial intelligence in medical education are that it:
Some major concerns about AI being used in medical schools include:
Read More: Preparing for Med School as a High Schooler
Several AI-driven chatbots like ChatGPT exist specifically for medical settings. These include MedSimAI, which is more common in classroom settings, Clinic Chat, which is made for clinical settings, and OpenBioLLM-8B, a large language model available for personal or research use.
Here are some ways we already use artificial intelligence in healthcare and the medical field:
In my view, here’s the greatest potential for the use of artificial intelligence in medical education going forward:
While AI technologies can be a great resource, they’re not a replacement for expert coaching from real people who have been through the medical education system and on AdComs. AI can be an amazing tool, but there has to be a balance between AI and the human element.
Dr. Mehta is the founder of MedSchoolCoach and has guided thousands of successful medical school applicants. He is also a practicing physician in Boston where he specializes in vascular and interventional radiology.