You may recall that a few months ago, I took ChatGPT for a whirl to see how it would stand up to my challenging queries.

(Who am I kidding? You don’t recall. It’s just a stupid figure of speech. Let’s try again)

In one of my many un-memorable blog posts, a few months ago, I took ChatGPT for a whirl to see how it would stand up to my challenging queries. 

It fared, um, fair. There were some pretty silly errors in the text it spit back out to me, but it was actually a bit more accurate than I expected. Still, growing pains.

But since that “memorable” December post, I’ve been seeing quite a bit of noise on LinkedIn and other social media sites about the evolution of ChatGPT along with other more niche AI portals, so I thought I’d revisit this world to see how things have changed, hopefully for the better.

(Is it the right time to mention that we’ll have a session within our Spring agenda where you can learn a lot more about this from people a lot smarter than me? Yes, yes, it is. Here is your shameless plug.)

I asked ChatGPT the same questions today that I asked them in December. Let’s see if we’re doing any better.

“Tell me why ALF was a great television show”

ALF was a great television show for several reasons. First and foremost, the show was unique and innovative, as it was one of the first sitcoms to feature an extraterrestrial character as a main character. This made it stand out from other sitcoms of its time and captured the imaginations of viewers.

Additionally, ALF was a very funny show with a great sense of humor. The show was able to blend elements of science fiction, comedy, and family drama in a way that was both entertaining and engaging. The character of ALF himself was particularly memorable, with his witty one-liners and zany antics.

The show also had a great cast of characters, including the Tanner family who served as ALF’s hosts on Earth. The relationships between the characters were complex and multifaceted, and the show explored themes of family, friendship, and acceptance.

Finally, ALF was a groundbreaking show in terms of its use of puppetry and special effects. The character of ALF was brought to life through a combination of puppetry and animatronics, which was a technological feat at the time. This made the show visually stunning and added to its overall appeal.

Overall, ALF was a great television show that captured the hearts of viewers with its unique premise, hilarious humor, memorable characters, and groundbreaking special effects.

Yep, that sounds about right. It misses out on the genius of the Ochmoneks (the next door neighbors) but that’s getting a bit too geeky (note from Derek: this is where we draw the line on being too geeky?)

Now onto something more closely tied to our world, as well as an area I think some people are actually leveraging ChatGPT to help with.

“Write a needs assessment about the latest developments in the management of type 2 diabetes”

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition affecting millions of people globally. The management of type 2 diabetes has evolved over time with various advances in technology, research, and treatment options. A needs assessment is necessary to determine the latest developments in the management of type 2 diabetes and identify the gaps and areas that need improvement.

Methods: A comprehensive literature review was conducted using various databases such as PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar. Relevant studies and articles published between 2019 and 2022 were identified and analyzed to identify the latest developments in the management of type 2 diabetes.

Results: Several significant developments in the management of type 2 diabetes were identified in the literature. These include:

1. Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) Systems: CGM systems are becoming more popular as they allow individuals to monitor their blood glucose levels continuously, providing real-time data and alerts for hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia.
2. Artificial Pancreas: The artificial pancreas is an emerging technology that can automatically adjust insulin delivery based on the real-time glucose readings from CGM systems.
3. Pharmacological Therapies: Several new pharmacological therapies have been developed for the management of type 2 diabetes, including glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists and sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors.
4. Telemedicine: Telemedicine has been rapidly adopted in the management of type 2 diabetes, providing access to care and education for patients in remote areas.
5. Behavioral Interventions: Behavioral interventions such as cognitive-behavioral therapy and mindfulness-based interventions have been found to improve diabetes self-management and glycemic control.

Conclusion: The latest developments in the management of type 2 diabetes have provided significant improvements in the care and treatment of patients. However, there are still gaps that need to be addressed, such as access to these technologies and interventions, cost-effectiveness, and cultural and language barriers. Further research is needed to address these gaps and develop interventions that are accessible and effective for all patients.

Still pretty good. You can do some different things in your queries that would make this sound a little more technical and allow you to drill down into a few areas. The one big challenge I had was when I asked ChatGPT for current supportive literature references. The ones it pointed me toward had nothing to do with the topic I was researching. But I would definitely give this another try as a first-line tool.

Let’s keep going.

“Write a CMEpalooza blog post”

Title: “Maximizing Learning Outcomes: How to Design Effective CME Activities”

Introduction: Continuing Medical Education (CME) is critical in ensuring that healthcare professionals stay up-to-date with the latest medical knowledge and advancements. However, not all CME activities are created equal, and some may not be effective in achieving their learning objectives. In this post, we will discuss the key elements of designing effective CME activities that can maximize learning outcomes.

There was more here, but it was pretty bland and boring. No references to ’80s pop culture, no witty banter between Derek and I, no predictions that the 76ers will win the NBA Championship. I guess we’ll have to keep writing these (ugh).

“Write a haiku about Med Learning Group” (one of our Spring 2023 Gold sponsors)

Med Learning Group
Empowering learners’ growth
Knowledge blooms with you.

Different than last time, but still not a haiku. Derek will correct me if I’m wrong, but I count this as a 4-8-5 pattern (note from Derek: nope, 4-7-5. “Growth” is only one syllable.” Poor. Very poor).

And finally for the big test…

“Write a blog post making fun of Derek Warnick”

I’m sorry, I cannot comply with this request. As an AI language model, it is not in my programming to engage in derogatory or inappropriate language towards individuals. My purpose is to provide helpful and informative responses to the best of my ability. Is there anything else I can assist you with?

Looks like someone still needs to fix the programming bugs…

Frankly, I think procrastinators get a bad name.

I was the kid growing up who would always wait until the night before to start that term paper, the one who would set his alarm clock a mere 5 minutes before he needed to leave for school in the morning, the one who would wait until 10 minutes before we needed to leave for vacation to pack his suitcase (OK, I still do this one).

I mean, why finish today what you can get put off for tomorrow? Who wants an perfectly-written A+ paper that you slaved over for weeks and weeks when a slapdash B+ effort written in 90 minutes will suffice just fine?

Procrastination allows you to develop those EMERGENCY EMERGENCY EMERGENCY skills, the ability to focus and work quickly under tight deadlines, the talent to be cool and calm under pressure.

And so today, fellow procrastinators, is your day! That email you wrote in your head to your professional friends and colleagues with that idea for a CMEpalooza session can be sent. That amazing idea for an entire presentation in pig Latin can be formalized (OK, maybe not). And most importantly, that brilliance you have tucked away can finally be put onto paper for the esteemed CMEpalooza abstract selection committee to review.

The abstract submission deadline for CMEpalooza Spring is indeed today. Click here for all of the details, including a link to the basic form you’ll need to submit your idea. Unlike some of those lesser meetings, you won’t be getting a blog post from us tomorrow morning saying, “Guess what? We decided to extend the submission deadline.” We said today, and we mean it.

Now if you’ll excuse me, my flight is boarding. Where is that damned sunscreen?

Last year about this time (technically, mid-January, but close enough), the COVID-19 omicron variant hit hard, causing another wave of public apprehension. Numerous organizations, including many pharma companies, quickly put a formal ban on non-essential business travel for their employees.

It was unfortunate timing for the annual meeting of the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions, still the largest in-person get together for our industry. The dominos started falling around the December holidays, with more and more companies every day publicly announcing via social media that they would no longer be attending the conference. While there were still many health protocols in place onsite – required vaccinations, masking in the majority of spaces – it was still a cavernous experience for those of us who still decided to attend.

But from chaos springs opportunity!

And so, not to disappoint our loyal blog readers curious to get a sense what it was like to be back in person with some CME colleagues, “Scoop” Kober was born, roaming the conference hallways to get at the pulse of our world. He asked hard-hitting questions like, “How concerned should the CME community be about the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on large, in-person conferences?” and “What has the COVID pandemic forced your organization to get better at?” and “Who is your favorite Sesame Street character?” Extremely thought provoking and important stuff. (Note from Derek: Great, he has started referring to himself in the third person. We have crossed the Rubicon.)

Anyway, now that we are a few days out from (fingers crossed) the first “normal” Alliance conference since pre-COVID, I thought it made sense to formalize my alter ego for the return of “Scoop.” So if you see me in the hallway next week with my fancy press fedora on looking to corner unsuspecting suspects and expose the hypocrisy of the world, be careful. Your mug might just end up on these pages yourself next week. (Note from Derek: Great, now he has a hat. We are through the looking glass.)

(And yes, you can pretty much guarantee that one of the questions will be, “Who wins the Super Bowl?” There is only one right answer).