GPT-4 With Vision Has Poor Accuracy for Image-Based Radiology Questions
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Sept. 6, 2024 -- The large language model GPT-4 with vision (GPT-4V) has high accuracy for text-only radiology questions, but much lower accuracy for image-based questions, according to a study published online Sept. 3 in Radiology.
Nolan Hayden, M.D., from Henry Ford Health in Detroit, and colleagues examined the performance of GPT-4V on radiology in-training examination questions to gauge the model's baseline knowledge in radiology. The September 2023 release of GPT-4V was assessed using 386 retired questions (189 image-based and 197 text-based) from the American College of Radiology Diagnostic Radiology In-Training Examinations; 377 questions were unique.
The researchers found that GPT-4V answered 65.3 percent of the unique questions correctly, with significantly higher accuracy observed on the text-only versus the image-based questions (81.5 versus 47.8 percent). For text-based questions, differences were seen between prompts, with chain-of-thought prompting outperforming long instruction, basic prompting, and the original prompting style by 6.1, 6.8, and 8.9 percent, respectively. For image-based questions, there were no differences seen between prompts.
"We found that while GPT-4V shows relatively good performance on text-based questions, it shows deficits in accurately interpreting key radiologic images. This highlights the model's limitations in visual radiology analysis," the authors write. "We also noted an alarming tendency for GPT-4V to provide correct diagnoses based on incorrect image interpretations, which could have significant clinical implications."
Editorial (subscription or payment may be required)
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted September 2024
Read this next
Swept-Source Anterior Segment OCT Can Help Distinguish Early Childhood Glaucoma
FRIDAY, May 23, 2025 -- The noninvasive swept-source anterior-segment optical coherence tomography (SS-ASOCT) can diagnose early-onset childhood glaucoma, according to a study...
Semaglutide Plus Intensive Behavioral Therapy Most Beneficial for Weight Loss
FRIDAY, May 23, 2025 -- Weight loss treatment combining personalized semaglutide with intensive behavioral therapy (IBT) yields weight loss similar to that reported in...
Higher Social Media Use Tied to Subsequent Depressive Symptoms in Youth
FRIDAY, May 23, 2025 -- Higher social media use is associated with greater subsequent depressive symptoms in children and adolescents, according to a study published online May 21...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.