Advancing patient education in PRRT through large language models: challenges and potential

The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots for patient education raises questions about their accuracy, readability, and conciseness in delivering medical information. This study evaluates the performance of ChatGPT 4o and DeepSeek V3 in answering common patient inquiries about Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT). Twelve frequently asked patient questions regarding PRRT were submitted to both chatbots. The responses were assessed by nine professionals using a blinded survey, scoring accuracy, conciseness, and readability on a five-point scale. Statistical analyses included the Mann-Whitney U test for nonparametric data and the Chi-square test for medically incorrect responses. A total of 324 individual assessments were conducted. No significant differences were found in accuracy between ChatGPT 4o (mean 4.43) and DeepSeek V3 (mean 4.56; <i>P</i> = 0.0909) or in readability between ChatGPT 4o (mean 4.38) and DeepSeek V3 (mean 4.25; <i>P</i> = 0.1236). However, ChatGPT 4o provided significantly more concise responses (mean 4.55) compared to DeepSeek V3 (mean 4.24; <b><i>P</i> = 0.0013</b>). Medically incorrect information defined as accuracy ≤ 3 was present in 7-8% of chatbot responses, with no significant difference between the two models (<i>P</i> = 0.8005). Both AI chatbots demonstrated strong performance in providing medical information on PRRT, with ChatGPT 4o excelling in conciseness. However, the presence of medical inaccuracies highlights the need for physician oversight when using AI chatbots for patient education. Future research should explore methods to enhance AI reliability and personalization in clinical communication.