Artificial Intelligence in Allied Health Newsletter - October 2024

October 8, 2024

Issue: #4

Reading time: 4 minutes

Welcome to October’s edition of the AI in allied health newsletter! It’s been an exciting month (again) with further advancements in AI technology, regulation, open-source AI programs, and big data improvements. For me, I was honoured to be selected to present at AOTA Inspire 2025 in Philadelphia! I’ll be sharing my experiences and strategies for implementing AI into everyday practice. I’d love to see you there if you’re planning to attending too! Finally, probably a last chance shout out to anyone attending APOTC24 in Sapporo in November, please send me an email or message to let me know you’ll be there, I’d love to catch up and talk all things AI and digital health. 

Industry News

ChatGPT’s newest model, o1 was released mid-September which performs similarly to PhD students on benchmark tests. It spends more time processing before responding, and you cant adjust how long it takes to ‘think’ before responding to your prompt. This means it is slower, but a more capable model. On the topic of mathematics, which ChatGPT has been historically very poor with, o1 scored at 83% on benchmark tests, compared to 4o, the previous model, which scored at 13% accuracy. This is an exciting advancement in the AI model, which just keeps getting better and more useful. This brings us to level two of five on OpenAI’s AI future levels (OpenAI is the creator of ChatGPT). Read more here.

Essential Artificial Intelligence Tips

I wanted to share some excellent AI resources, written by fellow OT, Sarah Lyon from OTPotential.

The first resource is a great article "11 questions therapists should ask about AI documentation tools" which details 11 considerations and questions you should consider when exploring AI documentation tools to use in practice. Check it out here.

Prompt of the Month

Each month, I’ll be sharing a useful AI prompt designed to enhance your practice. This month’s prompt is to assist with creating a professional develop/ learning plan. 

How to use:

1. Input the prompt into your preferred AI tool (e.g. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot etc.). Avoid putting in any confidential information about yourself, it's not needed and not worth the potential privacy risk.

2. Customise to your needs.

3. Edit as required after the response is produced. E.g. you might want more options, or you might want the responses tailored in a specific way.

Prompt:

You are an allied health professional (insert your profession here instead) looking to deepen your expertise in (insert specific area here, e.g. paediatrics, upper limb rehabilitation) area of practice. Please create a comprehensive learning plan that includes the following elements:

1.      Learning objectives. Identify 3-5 specific learning goals to achieve within the next 6-12 months. These should be clear, measurable, and relevant to the area of practice.

2.      Learning measures. Describe the learning methods required to achieve the objectives. Include formal education (e.g. courses, certifications), self directed learning (e.g. research articles, case studies), and experiential learning (e.g. shadowing, clinical practice).

3.      Resources and tools. Identify key resources and tools that will support achievement of the learning objectives.

4.      Timeline. Break down the plan into a timeline, with milestones for each objective, ensuring the plan is achievable with some flexibility.

5.      Reflection and feedback. Include a strategy for regular reflection on progress and obtaining feedback from peers, supervisors, or mentors.

* Extra tip, sometimes breaking down the prompt into each step (i.e. multiple prompts, one step at a time) can give you a more comprehensive response rather than a multi-step prompt. But I’d suggest you give it a try and see what works best for you. You can also adjust the prompt to ensure the learning plan aligns with your local registration body (if applicable).

Thank you for being part of our community! 

Jess