Handbook

ChatGPT Essentials
for Clinicians
Franz Wiesbauer, MD, MPH
Table of contents
Abbreviation list 3

ChatGPT basics
Deciphering the science behind LLMs 5
Identifying differences between two popular AI chatbots 9
Learning the core principles of prompting 14
Using role prompting and parameters 19
Conversing with AI 25

Unleashing the
full potential of ChatGPT
Supercharging medical and scientific writing with ChatGPT (part 1) 32
Supercharging medical and scientific writing with ChatGPT (part 2) 38
Understanding basic applications of ChatGPT (part 1) 47
Understanding basic applications of ChatGPT (part 2) 53
Navigating complex texts and contracts with ChatGPT 57
Boosting your learning experience with ChatGPT 63

Appendix
Reference list 77

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Abbreviation list
ACE angiotensin-converting enzyme
ACS acute coronary syndrome
AI artificial intelligence
ARBs angiotensin II receptor blockers
ATP adenosine triphosphate
CAD coronary artery disease
CHD coronary heart disease
CoA coenzyme
CO2 carbon dioxide
DASH dietary approaches to stop hypertension
ECG electrocardiography / electrocardiogram
ED emergency department
ETC electron transport chain
FADH2 flavin adenine dinucleotide
GDP gross domestic product
LLMs large language models
LRRK2 leucine-rich repeat kinase 2
MSM marginal structural models
NADH nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide + hydrogen
NSAIDs nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
SNCA alpha-synuclein
TIMI thrombolysis in myocardial infarction
USMLE United States Medical Licensing Examination

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 Chapter 1

ChatGPT basics

www.medmastery.com
Deciphering the science behind LLMs
How do large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT work?

Imagine you’re trying to predict what word

I’m going to say next. It sounds tough, right?
But this is exactly what artificial intelligence
(AI) models like ChatGPT do. They’re like word
wizards, predicting the next word in a sentence,
learning from their hits and misses.

Think of it as a gigantic game of fill-in-the-

blanks, but instead of one sentence, you have a
vast library of books with blank spaces. During
training, these AI models look at all the words
they’ve seen so far, make their best guess for the
next word, and learn from whether they’re right
or wrong.

Phases of training
There are two main phases in the training:
1. Pre-training
2. Fine-tuning

Let’s take a look at each one.

Pre-training

There are four stages in pre-training:

1. Data collection
2. Prediction
3. Comparison
4. Loss function and adjustment

Let’s learn a bit more about these four stages.

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5
Data collection
During the data collection stage, ChatGPT is exposed to a rich variety of texts
from across the internet. It’s like a medical student studying from textbooks,
medical journals, online resources, and more.

Prediction
The model digests these words, learning the rules of language, facts about the
world, and some level of reasoning—all by predicting what comes next. This task
forces the model to learn about grammar, facts about the world, and some level
of reasoning to make accurate predictions.

For example, imagine this scenario. Let’s say it is presented with the text, “A boy
in Florida gazed up at a fruit tree and said, ‘I want to eat the _____.’” The AI model
is then asked to predict the word that comes next.

Let’s say it predicts the sentence ends in apple.

Comparison
Next comes the comparison stage. The model’s prediction is then compared to
the actual word that comes next in the dataset. So, now it knows that the
sentence, “I want to eat the _____,” actually ended in “orange.”

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Loss function and adjustment
The difference between the model’s prediction and the actual next word is
measured using a so-called loss function. This function quantifies how off the
model’s predictions are.

The model then adjusts its internal parameters, also called weights, to minimize
the loss function the next time it makes a prediction, thereby becoming
more accurate.

Loss function is minimized by adjusting weights

This entire process is iterative, just like studying for exams repeatedly until the
student masters the material. In the same way, ChatGPT keeps learning from
its misses, gradually getting better at predicting words and understanding
language.

Fine-tuning
The second main phase of its training is the fine-tuning phase. Think of this as
our AI transitioning from a medical school graduate to a specialized resident.
Here, ChatGPT hones its skills with a more tailored dataset.

Unlike the broader, more diverse dataset used in pre-training, this new dataset in
the fine-tuning phase consists of human-generated prompts and then, after the
AI generates its output, the human’s response to it.

You might ask, How are these prompts and responses created?

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Well, experts in a given field (e.g., healthcare professionals like doctors)
are often involved in creating this specialized data. They pose important,
relevant questions, such as, What are some common symptoms and potential
complications of uncontrolled Type 2 diabetes? and they also provide the
respective responses, which serve as a gold standard for the model’s predictions.
So, during fine-tuning, when ChatGPT receives a prompt or question, it tries to
predict the answer, and then compares its own output to the answer provided by
the experts.

Just as in pre-training, ChatGPT also receives feedback during the fine-

tuning stage through a loss function. The model continues to adjust its
weights, sharpening its proficiency in this specialty area and becoming
increasingly accurate.

So, in essence, the journey of ChatGPT’s training is much like a journey through
medical education. It starts with broad learning in the pre-training phase, or
medical school, and then sharpens its skills in the fine-tuning phase, akin to
a residency. Understanding this process sheds light on the strengths and
weaknesses of large language models.

Why does this shed light on the weaknesses?

Well, as we’ve just learned, large language models like ChatGPT try to predict the
most likely next word. They don’t look up the correct answer to your question in a
database. That’s not how they work.

In fact, sometimes these LLMs will hallucinate. That is, they often make up stuff
and invent citations. So, as a user of ChatGPT and similar tools, it’s your job to
fact-check their output.

It’s also important to note that ChatGPT was only trained on data up to a certain
point in time. For example, when ChatGPT 4 was released, it was only trained
with data up to 2021. It needs to have internet browsing capabilities enabled if
you want to get information out of it that’s more recent.

Alternatively, another option that uses GPT is Bing’s AI. It is most similar to
ChatGPT in creative mode.

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Identifying differences between two popular
AI chatbots
At the time of the development of this course, two popular AI chatbots are
ChatGPT and Copilot (formerly known as Bing Chat). We will focus on these two,
but please feel free to experiment with other chatbots as well as this is a rapidly
developing field.

You may be wondering, what’s the difference between ChatGPT and Copilot?

Copilot is powered by a version of ChatGPT that’s been optimized for use as

a search engine. So, if the task you’re working on requires your AI assistant to
have access to the most up-to-date information available online, using Copilot is
often the most straightforward way to accomplish it.

Accessing Copilot
To access Copilot, take the following steps:
1. Download the Microsoft Edge browser from Microsoft’s website.
2. Open the Edge browser.
3. Click the Copilot icon on the top right. That will make the Copilot sidebar
appear. Alternatively, you can go to www.bing.com/chat to use it in
full-screen mode.

Copilot sidebar

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9
 Full screen mode

You may notice that you’re limited in how many turns you get to have in a single
conversation with Copilot. However, you can upgrade your experience—getting
access to longer conversations—if you log into your Microsoft account when
using Copilot.

In the worst-case scenario, if you’re not already using Microsoft’s Edge browser
and you don’t want to download it, there are various third-party plugins available
(also known as browser extensions) that can give you access to Copilot in your
preferred browser (e.g., Chrome).

Copilot settings
Copilot has three settings that you can choose from:
1. More precise

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2. More creative
3. More balanced

These are kind of like multiple personalities for the AI, and which personality you
choose depends on the type of output you need.

More precise
In this mode, Copilot is all business. It’s optimized to provide you with information
that’s accurate. It also tends to give more concise responses compared to the
other modes. Of course, being an AI, it’s not going to be perfectly accurate 100%
of the time, but this is still your best bet if you want to maximize accuracy.

Examples of the types of questions that are well suited to this mode include
What is the gross domestic product (GDP) of Japan? or What is the chemical
formula for glucose?

More creative
You could describe Copilot’s more creative mode as the artist. This mode isn’t
just about delivering facts—it’s about crafting narratives, telling jokes, and even
writing poems. lt may occasionally stray from factual accuracy but is optimized
for creating engaging and imaginative content.

Examples of the types of questions that are particularly well-suited to this mode
include Can you write me a rhyming poem to invite guests to a birthday party? or Can
you create a drawing of a landscape?

More balanced
In more balanced mode, Bing’s AI is like a diplomat. It attempts to find a middle
ground, maintaining a balance between creativity and precision in its responses.

Examples of the types of questions Copilot’s more balanced mode could be

helpful for include What are some popular tourist attractions in Paris? or What are
the benefits of meditation?

Take a moment to ask Copilot some questions in each of its three modes so you
can see for yourself what it can do.

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ChatGPT versus Copilot
As you can see, Copilot is a great tool to have in your toolbox. But now the
question is, how do you decide whether to use ChatGPT or Copilot?

Does it involve an internet search?

The tool best suited to a given task will change with time as new features are
added to each. However, Copilot is a solid choice for anything involving an
internet search and will likely remain so.

Does it involve writing content?

Both of them can help you with writing emails, short stories, and computer code,
for example. They can both write in multiple languages, too.

Does it involve a lengthy input?

ChatGPT allows you to input more information at one time than Copilot does.
This makes ChatGPT better suited to tasks that require it to read over a very
lengthy input in order to come up with a response (e.g., to provide you with an
analysis of a legal contract). Technically Copilot is capable of understanding
lengthy input, too, but you’d have to provide it with the information in multiple
parts rather than all at once like you can with ChatGPT.

It’s important to note that proprietary or confidential information

shouldn’t be shared with Copilot or ChatGPT since the information you
input isn’t necessarily going to remain private. For example, it might
be used to train AIs in the future and there’s no guarantee that the AI
won’t accidentally share that info with other users.

Accessing ChatGPT
Now it’s time to try ChatGPT! Here are the steps:
1. To create your account, go to OpenAI’s website.
2. Follow the on-screen instructions to activate your free account.

Now you can use ChatGPT to try out the functionality you’re going to learn about
in upcoming lessons.

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Benefits of ChatGPT Plus
If you’d like to experiment with the most sophisticated version of ChatGPT
available to the public and its premium features, you’ll need a paid account.
These premium features may change over time, but examples include the
following:
• Option to add your own custom instructions that it’ll automatically take into
account in every conversation that you have with it
• Plug-ins for additional functionality
• Code interpreter that’s useful for things like help with coding and
data analytics
• Version equipped with internet browsing capabilities

After you’re logged into ChatGPT, ask it some of the same questions you asked
Copilot earlier and compare the responses. Keep in mind that those initial
interactions will only scratch the surface of ChatGPT’s true potential.

As you continue through this course, you’ll discover how to unlock even more of
this tool’s remarkable capabilities!
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Learning the core principles of prompting
When we interact with AI models like ChatGPT, we use prompts. But what
are prompts?

Simply put, a prompt is a question or instruction we give to the AI to elicit a

specific response. Think of it like giving directions to a friend. The clearer and
more specific your instructions, the more likely your friend will arrive at the
right location.

The same applies to AI. For instance, if we ask the AI, Explain heart disease, it
might provide a broad overview that covers all types of heart diseases. This
might be too generic and not quite what we were looking for.

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Refining prompts
Now, let’s refine our prompt. If we ask, Explain the pathogenesis of coronary artery
disease in non-medical terms, we’ve given the AI a target that’s clear and specific.
The response will likely be more focused, detailing the development of this
specific disease in a way that a non-medical person could understand.

So, as a medical professional, when using an AI like ChatGPT, remember to be

precise and specific with your prompts. Shape them to fit your needs, and you’ll
find that AI can be a remarkably useful tool in your journey.

Another very effective strategy is to tell the AI what not to do. In other words, to
put constraints on the task. For example, you could provide ChatGPT with the
text of an article and ask it to do the following: Please provide a summary of the

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following article for high school students in 100–150 words, focusing on the main
points and conclusions. Leave out any information relating to dates.

Or you could ask the AI to summarize text using Hemingway’s rules for writing,
some of which include the following:
• Use short sentences.
• Use vigorous English.
• Use positive language, not negative.
• Minimize the use of adverbs in your writing.
• Use simple language; avoid complex words or phrases.

ChatGPT already has an understanding of those rules, so you don’t need to list
them—try simply instructing ChatGPT as follows: Summarize the following text
using Hemingway’s rules for writing.

However, if you want to keep the chances of a misunderstanding to an absolute

minimum, you could experiment with listing some (or all) of Hemingway’s rules
for writing in your prompt, as you can see below.

Types of prompts
The manner in which you frame your prompts can have a significant impact on
the AI’s responses. Here are four important types of prompts:
1. Zero-shot
2. One-shot
3. Few-shot
4. Example-led

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Zero-shot
A zero-shot prompt asks the AI to do something without any specific examples
provided in the prompt so that it’s left to formulate a reply entirely on its training
data. An example of that would be if we simply ask the AI to Please categorize
this statement: “The service at the clinic was excellent.”

Any other type of singular question like What’s the job of the sinus node? or What’s
the capital of France? could also be categorized as zero-shot prompts.

One-shot
In one-shot prompts, we provide one example before posing our question, like
the example below.

ChatGPT’s reply is shown below.

Few-shot
Few-shot prompts involve giving the AI several examples before asking the
question. For instance, let’s say you’ve got a survey response that says, The
doctor was competent, and you tell the AI that this falls into the positive category.
You also have a survey response that says, The waiting time was long, and you tell
the AI that this is negative.

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After sharing those examples with the AI, you can give it another statement and
it will categorize it for you, according to your examples. In this case, it decided
that The seats in the waiting room were dirty was a negative statement.

Example-led prompts
This approach is akin to learning how to make a variety of sandwiches—a BLT,
a club sandwich, a grilled cheese, and so on—before being asked to make a
chicken sandwich, even though you haven’t specifically seen how to make one.
The diverse examples of sandwiches you’ve seen allow you to grasp the general
concepts that will allow you to make a chicken sandwich.

Applying this to an example-led prompt, you could provide the AI with several
examples of your email writing style and then ask it to do the following:

Understanding these types of prompts will enable you to extract more relevant
and precise responses from the AI, making it a powerful tool for your work.
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Using role prompting and parameters
In this lesson, we’re diving into a crucial concept in working with AI (particularly
ChatGPT) called role-prompting. So, what’s role-prompting?

Imagine you’re a director, and the AI is your actor. You can provide a role to the AI,
and it will respond based on that role. These roles can vary significantly, ranging
from a historian discussing the impact of past pandemics to a technical expert
explaining a complex medical device.

This adaptability can be especially beneficial in medicine. For example, you

might want to present a case study to a colleague but struggle to convey it
from a neurologist’s perspective. You could ask ChatGPT to take on the role of a
neurologist and write the case study for you, providing insight you may not have
otherwise had.

By assigning a role to the AI, we’re able to harness its vast training data to
present the material in a way that’s specific to that role’s domain. It’s like having
an expert consultant right at your fingertips!

Some roles commonly used with ChatGPT are things like writer, editor, and
university professor.

How to assign a role

You can give the AI a prompt that specifies which role it should take on:
• Act as: writer
• Act as: editor
• Act as: USMLE question writer (if you wanted it to act as a United States
Medical Licensing Examination writer)

Assigning parameters
You can also add parameters to your role prompts. Parameters provide
guidance that help the AI understand the context of what's expected
in its response, and I use them almost all the time in my prompts.

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One such parameter would be to tell the AI what type of text or output I want
from it. Here are some examples:
• Essay
• Email
• Letter
• Multiple choice questions
• Contract
• Poem

I usually write something like Act as: writer and Type of text: email.

Style and / or tone

Next, you should tell the AI what style and / or tone it should be using (you can
instruct it on style, tone, or both).

Here are some options for style:

• Academic
• Creative
• Descriptive
• Scientific
• Technical

Some options for tone include the following:

• Humorous
• Respectful
• Friendly
• Assertive
• Professional
• Casual

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So, to complete your prompt, you could then write Act as: writer, type of text:
email, tone: casual.

Output language
Next, you might want to tell the AI what output language to use. In this case, I
chose the output language to be English US.

Reader comprehension
Another super useful parameter that I use all the time is reader comprehension.
Continuing with our previous example, you could specify something like
reader comprehension: 5 years old (or 10 years old or 25 years old).

As you can imagine, choosing 5 years old will result in the AI coming up with
analogies that put the information into very simple terms. You can try it out. Ask
ChatGPT to Explain special relativity to a 5-year-old and see what it does.

Moving on with the same prompt we used earlier, you can further specify
that reader comprehension parameter by adding something like the
following examples:
• Advanced, assume extensive prior knowledge
• Intermediate, assume some prior knowledge
• Beginner, assume no prior knowledge

You can also add details such as first-year medical resident.

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Length
You can specify the length of the response you want with something like
length: 200 words.

Task
Of course, you obviously want to tell the AI what it should do—in other words,
what the task is. For example, you could write Task: Write an email introducing
Medmastery to a professor.

Output format
Another thing you can do is define the type of output you want to get, with things
like output: numbered list or output: table.

If you want the AI to work with some of your own text, then you could tell it, use
my text, and then insert your text.

Let’s try it out. Here’s what we pick:

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Here’s what we get:

That’s pretty sweet I would say. You’ll notice that it didn’t use our exact wording,
“Yo buddy, Medmastery is a pretty damn sweet app!” But it did incorporate the
spirit of it in its output in a way that would be suitable for a student’s email to
their professor.

Context
Here’s another thing you can do. You can provide ChatGPT with more context.

You could write this:

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So, here’s what we get:

That’s pretty amazing, don’t you think? But we’re not done yet! Coming up next is
a highly useful prompting technique that I think you’ll use a lot.

Check out Medmastery’s free AI prompt tool!

Now that you’ve mastered the art of AI prompting, check out the
free AI prompt tool on our website. It makes creating the perfect prompt a snap!

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Conversing with AI
This next technique is called iterative interactions. Simply put, it’s the process
of engaging with the AI in a back-and-forth manner, refining the response over
multiple exchanges, rather than expecting a perfect output in one go. It’s a
conversation—a dialogue where you give the AI feedback and more context,
which guides it toward better answers.

Why not get the perfect answer on the first try?

If you’ve already played around with ChatGPT, you’ll know that asking it to come
up with a long blog post or other type of text on the first go often results in
output that’s suboptimal. A much better approach would be to ask it to create
an outline for that blog post, then refine the outline together with the AI, and then
have it write the first draft of each section of the outline sequentially.

For example, let’s say we wanted to write a blog post about how to best learn
about electrocardiography (ECG). We might ask ChatGPT to create the outline,
as you see below.

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And here’s the result:

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Let’s assume you’re fine with this outline. You can now ask ChatGPT to come up
with the first draft of part one. Here’s the prompt:

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And this is what ChatGPT came up with:

Now this isn’t perfect, but if I were working with this text, I could now use it as a
first draft and either ask ChatGPT to rewrite it based on my feedback, or I could
refine this text myself. Then I could ask it to write part two of the blog post:

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Next, I could ask it to write part three:

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I would continue prompting it in that manner until it finished writing all the parts
of my blog post in my writing style.

You’ll notice that the last two prompts include a reminder for ChatGPT about
what it’s supposed to cover in each section. That’s sometimes necessary
because when you’re having a conversation with ChatGPT, there’s a limit on how
much of your past conversation that it can remember. So, if it’s been generating
lengthy pieces of text for you, it may forget important details that came from
earlier in your conversation unless you remind it.

Anyhow, I’d basically enter into a back-and-forth dialogue with ChatGPT, and in
my experience, this iterative approach yields the best outcomes.

Using a similar approach to ask for advice

You can use a similar approach when you want to get advice on how to
do something.

Let’s say you want to know how to come up with a great website for your private
practice. Instead of asking ChatGPT, I’m a doctor; how can I create a great
website? you could ask, I’m a doctor; what are the first three steps I need to take
to create a great website for my private practice? That will provide you with a
much more actionable and useful answer. Then, if needed, you can build on that,
asking it to provide you with more details on step 1, step 2, and finally, step 3.

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 Chapter 2

Unleashing the
full potential of
ChatGPT

www.medmastery.com
Supercharging medical and scientific writing
with ChatGPT (part 1)
As already mentioned, when you want to use ChatGPT to write a longer
document, you should always begin with an outline. Now, you’re not going to nail
the outline in the first attempt. You should iterate on it; enhance it with ChatGPT
until you’re pleased with the structure.

Then, the ideal approach is to let ChatGPT draft the first section of your outline,
and, you guessed it, iterate on that too. Once you are content with the first
section, you can ask ChatGPT to write the next section, building upon the first.

In my experience, this progressive, iterative method tends to yield the most

compelling results. Now, let’s get down to business.

Writing academic text

I’m going to provide you with some concrete tips and tricks that you can use
when writing research papers, essays, or any form of academic text.

Topic sentences
The first point of order is topic sentences. They’re the backbone of your
paragraphs, guiding your reader through your arguments, points, and ideas.

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Topic sentences frame what a particular paragraph is about, making your
writing more accessible, more navigable. But crafting a succinct, effective topic
sentence is not always easy. Here’s where ChatGPT can come to the rescue.

You can start with a paragraph you’ve written, then run it through ChatGPT
with the prompt: Please write a topic sentence for this paragraph. Ask ChatGPT
to generate three variations of this topic sentence. This way, you have more
options to choose from.

Let’s put this into practice. Let’s take the paragraph below and feed it into
ChatGPT with our prompt.

And voila! We have three distinct topic sentences:

1. Managing hypertension effectively involves a combination of dietary
changes and an active lifestyle.
2. Incorporating potassium-rich foods and following the DASH diet, along with
regular exercise, can be instrumental in controlling high blood pressure.
3. Tackling hypertension requires a multifaceted approach that includes
reducing salt intake, following a balanced diet, engaging in physical activity,
and managing stress levels.

Out of these, I personally would use a combination of options one and three.

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But remember, while ChatGPT is an amazing tool, it’s your research and writing.
So, don’t forget to adapt the chosen sentences to match your personal writing
style. It’s all about combining artificial intelligence with your unique human
touch to create something truly remarkable.

Transition sentences
These are the glue that binds your paragraphs together, ensuring a smooth flow
of ideas from one point to the next.

When well-executed, transition sentences imbue your writing with a certain

charm, a cohesive personality that keeps your reader engaged. However, writing
effective transition sentences can often feel like a daunting task. But fear not,
for ChatGPT is here to lend a helping hand.

To use ChatGPT for this task, you’ll need to identify two paragraphs you wish
to connect with a transition sentence. Now we run these through ChatGPT with
the prompt: Please write a transition sentence to connect these two paragraphs.
With this, you’re asking ChatGPT to create a bridge that will seamlessly connect
your ideas.

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Let’s give it a go, shall we? Here are two paragraphs from our hypothetical essay.

Now, using our prompt, let’s see what ChatGPT can generate for a transition
sentence to connect them. And there we have it:

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This sentence, as you can see, nicely connects the main ideas from our two
paragraphs. But remember, ChatGPT is just a tool. You should evaluate the
sentence and modify it if needed to make sure it fits your style and voice.

Transition sentences are the lubricant for your essay’s engine, ensuring a
smooth ride for your reader. And with ChatGPT, creating them can be a breeze.

Introduction
Let’s delve into how you can use ChatGPT to formulate compelling introductions.

A well-crafted introduction is pivotal for both a journal article and a dissertation.

It sets the tone, provides the context, and hooks your reader.

But as many experienced and novice academic writers would tell you, crafting a
captivating introduction is often a herculean task. Thankfully, with ChatGPT, the
seemingly impossible becomes a lot more manageable.

To use ChatGPT in crafting an introduction, start by writing a rough draft of your

introduction. Remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect, it’s just a starting point.
Once you have your draft, run it through ChatGPT with the following prompt:
Please rewrite the following paragraph as an introduction.

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Let’s give it a whirl. Below is a draft introduction for our hypothetical paper, typos
and all.

Now, let’s see how ChatGPT enhanced it.

As you can see, ChatGPT restructured our draft into a more compelling and
engaging introduction. But again, it’s essential to remember that ChatGPT is an
AI assistant. Take its output as a suggestion, not the final word. It’s up to you to
mold it, to tweak it to fit your personal writing style.

In the next lesson, we’ll tackle the methods section of your paper.

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Supercharging medical and scientific writing
with ChatGPT (part 2)

Methods section
Let’s take a moment to focus on a part of the paper that’s crucial yet often
considered tedious to write: the methods section.

If you’ve ever found yourself dragging your feet when it comes to writing up your
research methodology, you’re not alone. But with ChatGPT, this task can become
a whole lot easier.

Writing a methods section usually involves describing your experiment, data

source, patient population (if applicable), data structure, ethics committee
approvals, data analysis, reagents used, and so on. While it’s crucial that your
paper includes all these details, writing them up in a structured and coherent
manner can feel like a chore.

Step 1: Brainstorm
Here’s a simple trick. Start by brainstorming and jot down all these details in
bullet-point format.

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You don’t have to worry about polishing the language or structuring it neatly at
this stage. Just get all the information down, similar to a free-writing session.
For instance, your initial draft could look something like this:
• Experiment conducted in lab X
• Data sourced from hospital Y
• Patient population: age 50–70, both males and females, non-smokers
• Data organized using software Z
• Ethics committee approval obtained from university A
• Data analyzed using method B
• Reagents used (list them)

Step 2: Ask ChatGPT to refine

Now, with these bullet points as your starting point, you can ask ChatGPT to
help you flesh them out into a coherent methods section. Just input your bullet
points into ChatGPT and ask it to do the following:

By doing this, you’ll have a well-structured methods section in no time, with

significantly less effort than doing it manually.

Now I’ll show you an example of this action. Below is both the prompt and the
output from ChatGPT.

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Of course, once you have this draft, you need to review and refine it, tailoring it to
your research and personal style.

Remember, ChatGPT is a tool to assist you, and it’s important to put your touch on
the final output. This approach makes the process of writing a methods section
a breeze, saving you time and energy and ensuring you have a comprehensible
and complete description of your methodology.

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Counterarguments
Alright, with our methods nicely detailed, let’s now move on to handling
counterarguments in our writing. Counterarguments are typically incorporated
into the discussion part of your paper.

Incorporating counterarguments in your writing adds depth to your work and

invites your reader into a thoughtful discourse. It shows that you’ve not only
thoroughly researched your topic but also considered differing viewpoints.
However, when we’re invested in developing an argument, it’s often challenging
to conceive strong counterarguments. That’s where ChatGPT steps in.

With ChatGPT, you can input your claim or argument and use that to generate
counterarguments. Use the prompt, Please give me a counterargument for
this claim.

Let’s put it to the test. Below is a claim from our example paper:

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Now that our prompt and claim is in ChatGPT, let’s see what counterarguments
ChatGPT can provide for us. And here they are!

Remember, these counterarguments are not just rebuttals to refute. Instead,

think of them as opportunities to further bolster your main argument and to
illuminate different facets of the topic at hand.

But, remember to use your own critical thinking in using these counterarguments.
After all, ChatGPT is your research assistant, not your supervisor.

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Conclusion
Having covered counterarguments, we’re now approaching the final stretch of
our academic writing journey with ChatGPT. We now need to round off our work
with a compelling conclusion.

Writing a conclusion that effectively summarizes your work and leaves a lasting
impact on the reader can indeed be challenging. But with ChatGPT, this task
becomes significantly more manageable.

Similarly to how we crafted our introduction, you should start by writing a draft of
your conclusion. Once you have this, run it through ChatGPT with the following
prompt: Please rewrite this paragraph as a conclusion. You should ask for three
variations to have a wider range of choices.

Let’s look at a quick demo. Below is an example of a draft conclusion for a

fictional paper with lots of typos that’ll put ChatGPT to the test.

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Now, let’s engage ChatGPT and see how it can help us shape a more effective
conclusion. And voila!

Remember that you can ask ChatGPT for more than one version of your
conclusion and select the one that best fits your work and personal style.

Also, the conclusion is a great place to incorporate the counterarguments we

discussed earlier. By addressing them in your conclusion, you not only provide a
well-rounded viewpoint but also strengthen your main argument.

Using another conclusion as an example

Now let’s add one more technique into the mix. Perhaps there’s a conclusion
from a paper that you’ve read and really admired. You loved how it was

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structured, how it summarized the main points, or how it left a lasting impact.
With ChatGPT, you can use that conclusion as an example for your own work.

Simply give ChatGPT the conclusion you liked, along with your own work’s
main points or arguments. Then ask it to write a similarly structured conclusion
for you. Remember to specify that you’re looking for a conclusion structured
similarly to the example you provided.

This is an incredibly powerful technique to learn from work you admire and apply
that same brilliance to your own writing, while still retaining your unique voice
and perspective.

As always, tailor the final output to your style and the specific requirements of
your paper.

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Understanding basic applications of
ChatGPT (part 1)
Now that you know how to structure and write long-form text with the help of
ChatGPT, I’m going to show you some basic applications that will significantly
streamline your writing.

Changing the writing style

One incredibly useful application of ChatGPT is changing the writing style.
Let’s say you’ve written detailed and informative information about a complex
medical concept. It’s perfect for a scientific journal, but not so much for a blog
post aimed at the general public.

How can you make it more engaging, or even humorous? Well, with the power of
ChatGPT, it’s as simple as using the right prompt.

The key is to specify the style you want the text to be in. You can use the
following prompt: Change the writing style of the text below to [desired style]. Then
paste your text after the prompt.

For instance, if we have an explanation of a medical concept that’s overly formal,

like the one below, and we want to add a touch of humor to it, we might prompt
ChatGPT with, Change the writing style of the text below to humorous (and paste
your text below).

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Check out the result! Your previously academic text is now engaging and
light-hearted, making it much more appealing to a broader audience.

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But what if the text is too technical? Maybe you’ve stumbled upon a scientific
paper full of jargon, and you’re struggling to understand it. Don’t worry! ChatGPT
can help simplify it for you.

For instance, you can use the prompt: Rewrite this text as if I were a beginner.

Below is an example. By feeding the text into ChatGPT with this prompt, you can
transform a complex explanation into a simpler one, making it easier for
beginners to understand.

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Remember, the power of ChatGPT lies in your prompts. The clearer and more
specific your prompts are, the better the output.

Using ChatGPT as an editor

After learning how to tweak writing style with ChatGPT, let’s dive into its
editing capabilities. ChatGPT can be your anytime editor, catering to diverse
document types.

Begin with the prompt: Edit the following text. It’s for my [type of text]. Then paste
your text after that prompt. Now watch ChatGPT go to work. Its true power lies
in customization.

You can detail the degree of changes needed, guide the AI on the type of edits,
and even get feedback to improve your writing skills. ChatGPT can also tailor
your text’s style and tone to fit your needs, even mimicking the voice of a famous
person or translating your work.

For the scriptwriters and novelists out there, ChatGPT can find weak points in
your plot. Just ask it the following: Show me all the weak plot points in this. It’s like
having a reliable second set of eyes for your work.

With ChatGPT, the possibilities for editing are truly limitless, making it a potent
tool for writers.

Getting help with brainstorming

Now let’s see how ChatGPT can assist us with brainstorming new ideas. This
tool is not only your writing and editing companion, but it’s also a powerful
ideation partner.

Suppose you’re working in a clinic and want to streamline the patient workflow.
It might feel like a daunting task, but ChatGPT can ease this process.

As always, getting the prompt right is key to obtaining meaningful suggestions.

Let’s work through this together.

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First, clearly define your problem: ChatGPT, I need your assistance in improving my
clinic’s patient flow. Then you can tell it to Please consider the following parameters.
Now consider the style of the output you want. Let’s go with professional. As for
the tone, we can choose friendly.

Regarding language, we’ll stick with English US. For the reader comprehension
level, let’s assume this is aimed at a 25-year-old with limited experience in hospital
administration and logistics. Next, we determine the format of the output. In this
case, we want it to be a bullet-point list.

Finally, specify the topic: Patient flow in the hospital, patient logistics. The task
would then be: Based on these, can you provide five ideas to make the patient flow
in my clinic more effective?

With these elements in place, ChatGPT can now generate a list of five
professional, friendly, and comprehensive ideas to streamline the patient flow in
your clinic.

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That’s not a bad list! As always, choose only the ideas that work for you.

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Understanding basic applications of
ChatGPT (part 2)
In this lesson, I’m going to teach you two more basic applications that will
increase your efficiency with certain tasks.

Data structuring
Imagine this scenario. You receive an email, extensively detailing a completed
construction project.

That’s exactly what happened in the example below regarding a recently finished
building project. It summarizes the materials used and their respective quantities.

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The email, while thorough and informative, contains a lot of data scattered
throughout the text. This makes it hard to quickly glean the specifics or compare
the quantities of different materials used in the project. But fear not, this is
where ChatGPT’s data structuring capability comes in handy.

To structure this data, you can feed the content of this email into ChatGPT with a
specific prompt asking it to structure the information into a table. For instance,
you might ask the following:

Then ChatGPT will output a structured table containing all the material types,
their uses, and their corresponding quantities, as described in the email.

Isn’t that fantastic? All the essential information from the lengthy email is now
compiled into an easy-to-read and digestible format.

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That’s just one of the many ways you can use ChatGPT to structure unstructured
data. It’s all about learning how to frame your prompts to get the desired results.

Finding perfect emojis

Now, let’s delve into a delightful application of ChatGPT: finding the
perfect emojis.

In our emoji-filled world, pinpointing the one that encapsulates your emotions or
message can be challenging. That’s where ChatGPT comes to the rescue!

Imagine this. You’re writing an email for an invite to a surprise birthday bash this
Saturday, and you want an emoji to add a dash of fun to the subject line. In
ChatGPT, you can type in your subject line followed by the prompt, Suggest 10
emojis for this, and ChatGPT will spring into action.

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As you can see, ChatGPT comes up with a range of great suggestions, including
a party popper to represent celebration, a balloon for a festive atmosphere, a
shushing face to emphasize that it’s a surprise, and more, adding extra fun.

This way, ChatGPT acts as your emoji concierge, adding a playful and personal
touch to your text. Obviously, you can always refine it or drill down into a specific
idea as much as you want to.

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Navigating complex texts and contracts
with ChatGPT
In this lesson, we’re going to learn how you can use ChatGPT to understand and
assess complex topics like contracts. Now if you’re trained in medicine like me,
you’ll probably find legal texts—well, let’s say challenging.

Why do they always have to be written in such a complex way, full of confusing
jargon and seemingly bloated phrases? Well, the good news is that ChatGPT is
about to become your new best friend when it comes to deciphering contracts.

Understanding contract language

Whether you’re signing a new employment agreement or renting a new
apartment, the words in the contract have very specific meanings. It’s crucial to
know exactly what you’re agreeing to before signing on the dotted line.

Let’s use an apartment lease as an example.

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You might come across phrases like lessor, lessee, and other legal terms. But
what do they all mean?

This is where ChatGPT comes in. Let’s say you’re not sure what clause
three means: “Lessor shall maintain the common areas in a clean and
sanitary condition.”

Use the prompt, What does this mean? and then paste in the text that you
found difficult.

ChatGPT will translate it into simpler language for you.

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ChatGPT defined all of the terms for you, and now you know that in simple terms,
it’s the responsibility of the property owner (or manager) to keep the common
areas in a state that is clean and does not pose health risks. You also know
that this typically includes activities such as regular cleaning, trash removal, and
maintenance tasks that contribute to the overall hygiene and cleanliness of the
spaces shared by the occupants.

But it doesn’t stop there. With ChatGPT, you can dig deeper. By asking follow-up
questions, you can improve your understanding even further. For example, you
might ask, What can the tenant do if the lessor fails to maintain the common areas?
Below is the answer.

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Just like that, you can uncover the full meaning and implications of your
contract. And the beauty of it? You can do this with any document, not just
contracts, making legal language and jargon a lot less daunting.

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Identifying dangerous language
Now that we have an idea of how to interpret legal language, let’s take a step
further and learn how to spot what we call dangerous language in contracts. This
is language that heavily favors one party over the other, creating an imbalance
of power.

Let’s go back to the lease scenario. While many parts of the lease may
seem standard, there might be clauses inserted that put the tenant at
a disadvantage.

As you may recall, clause five of the example lease we saw earlier said, “Lessee
shall be responsible for all repairs, major or minor, to the leased premises.” It
sounds like a hefty responsibility for a tenant, doesn’t it?

Now, let’s ask ChatGPT for help:

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As you can see, ChatGPT brings up many important points that we need to
consider, and it flags a couple of reasons why this language may be unfair.

First, in some jurisdictions, it may be required by law that the landlord takes
responsibility for certain repairs, especially those that are essential for the
property to be habitable. Second, If the property was in poor condition at the
beginning of the lease, it may be considered unfair to hold the tenant responsible
for all repairs, major and minor.

Spotting clauses that lead to an imbalance of power and understanding

their implications can help you negotiate better terms, or at least make an
informed decision.

Of course, you can go through the same process with any other complex
document. You could take any section of the document and ask ChatGPT to
summarize it as if you were 16 years old, for example. That’ll make it much
easier to understand, without oversimplifying it.

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Boosting your learning experience
with ChatGPT
In this lesson, you’ll see four ways that you can use ChatGPT to assist
with learning.

Explain it to a child
The first technique allows you to ask the AI to explain complex medical or
scientific concepts in a simplified manner, which is similar to how you would
explain a complex topic to a child or a preteen. You can choose any age.

We call this technique, Explain it to a child (e.g., 5, 10, 12, 15, 20, or any age). Each
explanation will be slightly different, and I encourage you to play around with it.

Here’s an example of how you can do this. If you’re finding a concept like
epigenetics overwhelming, you could type: Explain epigenetics like I’m 12.
ChatGPT will then generate a response that simplifies the concept.

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Now, let’s push this a bit further. Imagine having to comprehend a complex
scientific abstract. You could ask ChatGPT to summarize this abstract like I’m 12,
then paste the text of the abstract. ChatGPT will then distill the information from
the abstract into a summary that a preteen could understand.

Step-by-step explanations
The second technique is step-by-step explanations. This technique is helpful
when you want to understand a complex process or concept in more detail.

For example, to understand cellular respiration, type: Can you explain the steps of
cellular respiration?

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Notice how ChatGPT breaks down the process into manageable steps.
Combining this with the explain it to a child technique, as you see below, can
enhance understanding even further.

Dialogue-based learning
The third technique involves you and ChatGPT engaging in a back-and-forth
conversation and is known as dialogue-based learning.

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To initiate this, you can provide clear instructions about the type of dialogue you
wish to have. For instance, if you’re interested in immunotherapy, type
the following:

This method allows you to tailor your learning experience and dig deeper into
topics of interest.

Flashcard generation
Finally, the fourth technique is flashcard generation. This involves using ChatGPT
to create flashcards.

Step 1: Paste in the information and ask it to create

flashcard-type questions
Imagine you want to study the treatment of acute coronary syndromes. You
can go to UpToDate or the respective guidelines, then copy the text, and ask
ChatGPT to create United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE)-type
questions based on that text.

In this example, we’re going to use the 2014 American Heart Association /
American College of Cardiology guideline for the management of patients with
non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndromes.

However, it’s important to note that these guidelines are 83 pages long, and
feeding all of them into ChatGPT at once is not an option. That’s because
ChatGPT has a limit on how much context it can take into account in a given
conversation.

Or, to put it another way, it’s kind of like ChatGPT has a limit on how much it can
remember at one time. In fact, if you submit too much text to ChatGPT, you’ll get

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a reply that tells you that. So, we’re going to feed this info into ChatGPT in more
manageable chunks.

For this example, we’ll use the prompt, Please create five United States Medical
Licensing Examination (USMLE)-type questions based on the following guidelines on
the diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes.

Then we’ll paste about 2000 words of text from section three of the guidelines
into the prompt window. (Keep in mind that ChatGPT is updated regularly, so the
limit on your input length may change over time.)

ChatGPT will come up with questions and answers like the ones below.

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The vast majority of the time, the answer solutions it generates will be correct.
However, remember that the AI can make occasional errors. So, for things like
this where it’s critical that you’re learning the correct information, it’s a good idea
to fact-check the AI’s suggested answer solutions.

Step 2: Ask it to rewrite the questions in the correct format

Next, you have to tell it to rewrite the questions such that the question and
possible answers appear on the front of each flashcard, and the solution appears
on the back. Here’s an example of the prompt you can use for this task: Please
rewrite for a flashcard app like Anki. On the front side, there should be the question
with all possible answers. On the back side, the question and answers should be
shown again, and the correct answer should be marked with an asterisk.

You may need to copy the questions it previously created into your prompt,
too. That type of reminder is helpful to keep ChatGPT on track, particularly with
longer conversations.

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Below is what we get.

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To get those questions and answers into your flashcard app, ask ChatGPT to
output them in a CSV format that can easily be imported into your app (e.g., Anki).

Here’s a prompt you can use: Now please output this information in a CSV format
that can be easily imported into Anki. On the front of the card, write the question
together with the possible answers, on the back of the card write the correct answer.
Make sure that on the front side of the cards, each answer appears on a new line.
Make sure the fronts and backs are separated by a semicolon. Also provide clear,
step-by-step instructions on how to import the CSV output into Anki.

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Then watch ChatGPT work its magic!

Step 3: Save the results as a CSV file

Once it’s done, you’ll need to scroll up, and then click on Copy code.

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Paste that code into an empty file of a text editor, and save it as a CSV file (you’ll
have to manually change the file name extension to .csv since the default setting
will likely be something like .txt).

Step 4: Import the CSV file into your flashcard app

Next, you can go to Anki, click on Create Deck to create a new deck for your
import, and then click on Import File.

Import the CSV file you created by selecting the file and clicking Open.

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You’ll see a window, similar to the one shown below, that contains the import
setting options.
1. Make sure all fields are the same as how we’ve shown.
2. Scroll until you find the option to choose which flashcard deck you want to
use. I’ve chosen my default deck in the example.
3. Finally, click the Import button.

4. You’ll get a confirmation message.

5. Click the Close button.

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And now, you have a new deck with your questions.

Below is what the front of a card looks like. If you’d like to adjust any of the
formatting, you can do that by clicking the Edit button.

When you click Show Answer, the answer is now at the bottom.

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You can do all of that set-up on a computer, but after that’s done, if you have an
Ankiweb account and the mobile app, this deck will now also appear on your
mobile phone.

As you can imagine, this technique can help streamline your studying, making
it more efficient and effective. I once helped my son create an Anki deck for a
geography test. He had to study 10–15 pages in his book.

We used the camera of my iPhone, which comes with OCR capabilities meaning
that you can basically hold the camera over a piece of text and copy-paste
that text. I then went through the same process as the one I just showed you,
creating flashcards using ChatGPT, which made it much easier for him to study
for the test.

If you want to learn more about how you can use Anki at its full capabilities to
supercharge your learning, be sure to check out our Anki Essentials Course!

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Appendix

www.medmastery.com
Reference list
https://Bing.com/chat

https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt

https://www.nejm.org/

Amsterdam, EA, Wenger, NK, Brindis, RG, et al. 2014. 2014 AHA/ACC Guideline for the
Management of Patients with Non-ST-Elevation Acute Coronary Syndromes: A report
of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on
Practice Guidelines. J Am Coll Cardiol. 64: e139–e228. PMID: 25260718

Wiesbauer, F, Heinze, G, Mitterbauer, C, et al. 2008. Statin use is associated with

prolonged survival of renal transplant recipients. J Am Soc Nephrol. 19: 2211–2218.
PMID: 18650477

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Become an expert by learning the most important clinical skills at www.medmastery.com.