When does ChatGPT refer someone to a plastic surgeon?

Alexander F Dagi ¹, Nadeem E Jones ¹, Jarrod T Bogue ¹

⁰Division of Plastic Surgery, The New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States.

Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery : Jpras +

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August 9, 2025

View abstract on PubMed

Summary

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT consistently highlight plastic surgery

Area Of Science

Healthcare Technology
Medical Education
Artificial Intelligence in Medicine

Background

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly evolving, impacting healthcare education and patient information seeking.
Understanding how AI tools, such as large language models (LLMs), represent medical specialties is crucial for clinicians and patients.
ChatGPT is a prominent AI chatbot increasingly used for health information and clinical decision support.

Purpose Of The Study

To assess the frequency and prominence of plastic surgery mentions in AI-generated responses.
To identify potential biases in AI training data regarding plastic surgery's role.
To understand the impact of AI on specialty visibility and future referral patterns.

Main Methods

Standardized prompts were submitted to ChatGPT-4 regarding 35 plastic surgery conditions and 24 control conditions.
Each prompt was submitted three times, totaling 177 queries.
The study measured the frequency of plastic surgery mentions and their ranking among other specialties.

Main Results

Plastic surgery was mentioned in 100% of relevant conditions queried.
Plastic surgery was most frequently listed as the primary specialty.
No mentions of plastic surgery were found in control condition queries.

Conclusions

ChatGPT consistently and prominently features plastic surgery in relevant health information.
AI models demonstrate strong visibility for plastic surgery within their knowledge base.
These findings underscore the importance of AI in shaping perceptions of medical specialties.

Keywords:

ChatGPT Large-language models Patient education Plastic surgery referrals