OBJECTIVES: Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT and Google Bard, may have a significant impact on healthcare and medical research. For instance, explaining findings from medical images and virtual assistance. This study examines the fields where LLMs will have the greatest potential and the ethical and legal challenges, such as AI ethics.

METHODS: We conducted a targeted literature review on the impact of LLMs in healthcare and medical research. The search included key topics such as ‘Artificial Intelligence’, ‘LLM’, ‘ChatGPT’, ‘Google Bard’, ‘patient-doctor relationship’ between 2020 and 2023. Content analysis was used to identify considerations of LLM in healthcare, in the framework of Bigpicture project, focusing on medical imaging. Moreover, we reviewed and analyzed the key EU regulations, such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Clinical Trials Regulation (CTR), and the proposed EU AI Act and European Health Data Space.

RESULTS: LLMs may have a significant impact on the following fields: virtual assistance for telemedicine; clinical decision support; real-time medical translation; medication management (e.g. reminders; dosage instructions); disease surveillance; medical writing and documentation (e.g. medical reports); clinical trial recruitment; creating symptom checkers; mental health support; remote patient monitoring; explaining findings from medical images.

Despite to the positive impact on improving healthcare experiences and cost savings, there are several legal and ethical issues. The main issues are trust and privacy: users may overly trust in these systems, and medical confidentiality is not secured. Therefore, rules and guidelines on privacy and AI ethics may be violated.

CONCLUSIONS: LLM’s will impact many fields in healthcare and medical research. It is still questionable how data protection and AI ethics will be respected.