ChatGPT Prompts for Veterinarians

ChatGPT has taken the world by storm over the last year. It has changed the way that work is done and has redefined the concept of productivity. In this post, we will explore some of the ways that veterinarians, technicians and other in the veterinary industry can leverage ChatGPT to be more efficient and deliver greater patient care.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a advanced language model developed by OpenAI that can chat, write, and even help out with all sorts of tasks. It particularly excels at repetitive and clerical type tasks. For example, writing out patient notes, extracting information from lab results, or creating material for pet owners to read. It's a game-changer for making day-to-day vet life smoother and ensuring pets get top-notch care.

We will explore 4 use cases where ChatGPT can be used to help improve existing processes:

Creating SOAP-style note templates

SOAP templates are a key practice amongst most clinics to help improve the quality of the notes and the time it takes to generate them. Not having to write out every category and boilerplate text saves a ton of time. The templates have to be kept up to date as well as modified by each doctor to fit their style. With ChatGPT, you can save time in the process of creating or modifying templates.

Here is a sample prompt and output:

Prompt:

Create a SOAP-style note template for a routine wellness examination in dogs

Output:

Subjective: The patient is a [age] [breed] presenting for a routine wellness examination. The owner reports [any concerns or observations].

Objective:

• Weight: [weight]
• Temperature: [temperature]
• Heart rate: [heart rate]
• Respiratory rate: [respiratory rate]
• Physical exam findings: [detailed observations, including condition of coat, eyes, ears, mouth, heart/lung sounds, abdomen palpation, musculoskeletal assessment, etc.]

Assessment:

• Overall health assessment: [general health status, any specific findings]
• Vaccination status: [current vaccination status and recommendations]
• Parasite control: [current status and recommendations]

Plan:

• Vaccinations: [specific vaccines to administer]
• Parasite prevention: [specific products/recommendations]
• Diet recommendations: [any dietary advice or changes]
• Follow-up: [scheduling next visit or any further testing if needed]

Writing discharge notes for a patient

Discharge notes are crucial for ensuring continuity of care once the patient leaves the clinic. They provide owners with clear instructions on how to care for their pet at home. Automating the creation of these notes can save time and improve communication with pet owners.

Prompt:

Draft a discharge note for a cat named Whiskers who was treated for a urinary tract infection.  Whiskers needs to take Clavamox twice daily for 7 days. [You can add more details including the full SOAP notes]

Output:

Discharge Note for Whiskers:

Whiskers was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection and has been hospitalized for 2 days under our care. Treatment included intravenous fluids and antibiotics.

Instructions for home care:

• Continue administering the prescribed antibiotic, Clavamox, twice daily for 7 days.
• Ensure Whiskers has continuous access to fresh water to encourage urination.
• Monitor for signs of improvement, including increased urination without straining and reduced lethargy.
• Return for a follow-up appointment in 7 days or sooner if symptoms persist or worsen.

Diet: Feed a wet food diet to help increase fluid intake.

Activity: Normal activity level is allowed, but monitor closely for any signs of distress or discomfort.

Please contact us with any questions or concerns regarding Whiskers's condition or care.

Q&A with test results

Extracting information from test results can be time consuming. Reading through every report to copy out values that you need for your notes or make decisions can slow down care. With ChatGPT, you can literally provide the reports in PDF or image format and have ChatGPT read off values and even summarize results.

Prompt:

Start by uploading the report in question to ChatGPT through the upload capabilities found in the attachment icon in the message bar. Then provide a prompt with your question.

Extract and list all the key values from Bella's bloodwork report, including any that fall outside the normal range.

Output:

Bella's Bloodwork Report Summary:

• ALT (Alanine Aminotransferase): 120 U/L (Normal Range: 10-100 U/L) - Elevated
• ALP (Alkaline Phosphatase): 300 U/L (Normal Range: 20-150 U/L) - Elevated
• WBC (White Blood Cell Count): 4.5 x 10^9/L (Normal Range: 5.5-16.9 x 10^9/L) - Low
• BUN (Blood Urea Nitrogen): 25 mg/dL (Normal Range: 7-27 mg/dL) - Normal
• Creatinine: 1.2 mg/dL (Normal Range: 0.6-1.2 mg/dL) - Normal
• Blood Glucose: 120 mg/dL (Normal Range: 70-110 mg/dL) - Elevated

Please review the elevated and low values for further clinical interpretation and management.

Creating educational and preventive care material

Educating clients about preventative care is essential for the health and well-being of their pets. ChatGPT can help create educational materials tailored to the needs of each patient, ensuring that pet owners are well-informed about the best practices for their pet's health.

Prompt:

Generate a client education guide on the importance of heartworm prevention in dogs.

Output:

Heartworm disease is a serious and potentially fatal condition caused by parasitic worms living in the arteries of the lungs and the heart of dogs. It is transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito.

Prevention is key because once a dog is infected, treatment can be costly and challenging, with the risk of severe health complications.

Here's why heartworm prevention is essential:

• Prevention is Effective: Monthly preventatives are highly effective at preventing heartworm disease.
• Safety: Preventatives are safe and can protect against other parasites as well.

Bonus: ChatGPT can show its work!

After reading the examples above, you might still be skeptical on how can this ChatGPT thing can be correct. Well, if you prompt it, ChatGPT will show its work. It will explain why it reached a conclusion and what supporting information it used to get there. This can help bring peace of mind on the information you are using. It is as simple as updating all the prompts above with the following directive:

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Show your work. Include any inference steps taken and data sources used to arrive to your answer.

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See how with that simplechange you can build trust in the system to know where an answer is coming from and even fix any incorrect steps. Remember, ChatGPT is a conversational AI, so talk to it. Tell it what it did correct and what it did wrong and you will see how it can get you to your desired output.

Conclusion

By following some of these use cases for ChatGPT, you can improve efficiency across your workflow. Even in cases where answers might not be perfect, it is easier to fix something that have to write it from scratch.

If you are interested in further automating and integrating these use cases into your workflows check out VetRec. With VetRec, we automatically record and transcribe your consultations to write your SOAP and discharge notes, as well as extract insights from your consultations. VetRec, reduces the chance for mistakes by safeguarding the responses based on your consultation information. Get started today for free at https://app.vetrec.io or book a demo with us to show you what VetRec can do.

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