Using Chat GPT to Develop Occupational Therapy Goals

I’m sure we’re all aware by now of the potential artificial intelligence (AI) has to reshape the role of almost every career. Occupational therapy is no exception.

AI may be used in OT to enhance practice and improve patient outcomes. A few ways AI can be used in occupational therapy include:

Assistive Technology

Developing more advanced and precise assistive technology such as prosthetics, splints, communication devices, seating, mobility devices, etc.

Virtual Reality (VR)

Some OTs already use VR in the clinic or hospital setting. Personally, I used VR when I worked in an inpatient setting for patients recovering from stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI). AI will help develop more realistic practice settings within a controlled environment. Apple Vision Pro is already using AI in their technology and I can definitely see the potential for helping those with disabilities.

Treatment Plans

AI will be able to make recommendations for treatment plans, exercises, and activities based on the patient’s specific needs, preferences, physical & cognitive capabilities, and contextual environments.

Home Exercise Programs

Developing personalized home exercise programs (HEPs) by frequency, duration, intensity, etc. As occupational therapists and COTAs, we should already be developing personalized HEPs, but we all know how busy our schedules can get and we sometimes end up recycling programs for similar patients. AI will be able to create HEPs faster and more specifically based on each patient’s needs.

Goal Development

Yes! With just a few prompts in an AI-generated model such as Chat GPT, occupational therapists may be able to create a growing list of treatment goals with just a few clicks.

Could it be that easy? It might be! That’s why I decided to try it out for myself using Chat GPT.

First I went to Open AI’s Chat GPT generator to prompt my requests. These are the 6 items I entered to get the final results:

• Make me a list of occupational therapy goals for developing pediatric fine motor skills
• Start each goal with “Patient will” and include trials out of 10 trials to make each goal measurable
• Replace the words “out of” with “/”
• Include assist levels ranging from minimal, moderate, to maximal
• Make each goal occupation based
• End each goal with “within 6 months”

I used the SMART goal model to help me shape my goals in Chat GPT since initially, it had given me a very broad list of goals that I would not be able to use in any of my treatment plans.

Example:

In the end, it took about 2-3 minutes to get the information correct and Chat GPT was able to generate 15 goals that I think can be used in occupational therapy treatment plans.

Keep in mind, the goals that were generated are pretty generic, but I definitely think they would be useful for new grads, students, or maybe an OT transitioning into a new setting. That’s what makes AI so useful because it continuously adapts based on your personal or specific needs.

In my case, I was more specific in wanting pediatric fine motor goals, but you can edit your prompts to include what you need in your goals. For example, if you work in an inpatient hospital and would like to generate postural stability goals you’d type something like: make me a list of occupational therapy goals to improve postural stability.

My overall opinion on my experience using Chat GPT to develop OT goals is that it’s decent enough to include on treatment plans, but it’s more of a template tool that should be edited to personalize goals for each patient.

What do you think about using AI-generated models to develop treatment goals?

Feel free to use any of the goals I developed in Chat GPT if they meet the needs of any of your patients. The goals are linked below in a PDF download.

Chat GPT Pediatric Fine Motor Goals