Integrating Artificial Intelligence in Medical Education: A Meta-Synthesis of Potentials and Pitfalls of ChatGPT

ChatGPT serves as a double-edged sword in education, offering either constructive information or potential challenges. Its impact ranges from being a transformative tool to a disruptive force, making it difficult to evaluate its educational efficacy comprehensively. In light of this complexity, the primary aim of this research was to investigate the opportunities and challenges associated with the integration of ChatGPT into the domain of medical education.

The study utilized the Interaction Equivalency Theorem as its conceptual framework to guide the investigation. To achieve the research objectives, a meta-synthesis of the literature was conducted to systematically integrate the findings of selected studies. Data collection involved comprehensive searches across specialized academic databases, including Science Direct, Springer, ERIC, Emerald, SAGE, Wiley Online Library, PubMed, and Google Scholar, focusing on publications from 2022 to 2024. 88 articles were meticulously selected based on their relevance to the research topic. The data were then subjected to thematic analysis, facilitating the extraction of key insights and patterns to address the study objectives.

The findings were organized into four primary subthemes highlighting the opportunities presented by ChatGPT in medical education. These sub-themes encompassed benefits for educators, learners, curriculum development, and the learning process. Similarly, the challenges related to the integration of ChatGPT were categorized into four primary sub-themes: addressing the difficulties experienced by educators, learners, curriculum development, and the learning process. Together, these challenges were further delineated into 11 secondary sub-themes, offering a comprehensive analysis of the complexities involved.

The findings suggest that improving educational efficiency, assisting with self-development, enhancing communication skills, creating and expanding curriculum, and improving the learning environment are opportunities for utilizing ChatGPT. The study outcomes also reveal that lack of technological knowledge, negative attitudes, reduction in education quality, diminishing students' capabilities, reducing learning quality, flaws in learning development, difficulties in designing educational content, and bias in learning evaluation are challenges of applying ChatGPT in medical education.