Revolutionizing healthcare with ChatGPT: current advancements, challenges, and future directions

ChatGPT an advanced natural language processing (NLP) model is gaining attention across diverse healthcare contexts. This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 594 publications from the Web of Science database mapping the current research landscape, emerging hotspots, and future directions of ChatGPT in healthcare research. The analysis revealed an annual growth rate of 91.18% underscoring the rapid expansion of scholarly interest in this area. Key themes included its potential applications in clinical decision support, medical education and patient communication, as well as recurring concerns related to misinformation and ethical considerations. The most cited publication in this domain received 741 citations reflecting the substantial influence of early contributions. Although ChatGPT can generate human-like text, its potential roles in supporting diagnostic reasoning, streamlining information workflows and assisting in medical documentation remain speculative and require further empirical validation. This study provides a descriptive foundation to guide future interdisciplinary inquiries into ChatGPT’s evolving role in healthcare.