Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Medical Education: A Systematic Review

Artificial intelligence (AI) models, like Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (OpenAI, San Francisco, CA), have recently gained significant popularity due to their ability to make autonomous decisions and engage in complex interactions. To fully harness the potential of these learning machines, users must understand their strengths and limitations. As AI tools become increasingly prevalent in our daily lives, it is essential to explore how this technology has been used so far in healthcare and medical education, as well as the areas of medicine where it can be applied. This paper systematically reviews the published literature on the PubMed database from its inception up to June 6, 2024, focusing on studies that used AI at some level in medical education, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Several papers identified where AI was used to generate medical exam questions, produce clinical scripts for diseases, improve the diagnostic and clinical skills of students and clinicians, serve as a learning aid, and automate analysis tasks such as screening residency applications. AI shows promise at various levels and in different areas of medical education, and our paper highlights some of these areas. This review also emphasizes the importance of educators and students understanding AI's principles, capabilities, and limitations before integration. In conclusion, AI has potential in medical education, but more research needs to be done to fully explore additional areas of applications, address the current gaps in knowledge, and its future potential in training healthcare professionals.