During my July hospitalization, I noticed my doctors often turning to their smartphones for the answers to my questions.
I’d be fine with a competitively-priced Dr. ChatGPT with prescribing privileges as my Primary Care Physician.
free link:
intercst
I don’t remember where I heard this first.
Education isn’t about what you know, but knowing how to find the answer.
So, for example, I don’t have all my physics textbooks memorized. I used to have a lot stuffed in my head. But I know which book to look in for any given physics question. I don’t have a problem with a doctor who would do the same. I’d rather that, than he/she being absolutely certain while being wrong.
The difference is, a well trained Dr or specialist knows not only the symptoms one might think are the problem, but may well notice other, seemingly unrelated things that Dr ChatGPT has no way of noticing and look at other possibilities… Sadly, all my own Doctors, Dentists, Dermatologists, Cardiologists, Opthamologists have all retired! So many have been replaces by PA’s, NPA’s! I have locked in on new Opthamologist & Cardiologists, also a great new Dentist, but at my age it would have been nice to keep this old timers I once had… Have to train the new youngun’s! 
I agree. I see it as an augmentation, not a replacement.
We had to change PCP when we retired. She only accepted employer-based insurance. Ours is now a NP, though there is a couple of MDs in the office. And she is about 10 years younger than us (our previous PCP was our age), so less likely to retire soon.
As long as you can get complete, accurate test results you can feed them into an AI like Google Gemini or Perplexity. They will then give long, detailed explanations with further suggested questions and links to original research. I have spent hours following up these questions and elicited information that a human GP doesn’t have the time to research, let alone explain to a patient in 15 minutes.
I sometimes say to doctors, “You have 1,000 patients but I only have one ME.” I don’t expect to learn the broad knowledge but I have unlimited time to probe deeply into the narrow areas that impact me (and DH) directly.
The caveat is that you need to input complete, accurate data. A human medical professional may notice and investigate physical symptoms – like the nurse practitioner who used a stethoscope and discovered my heart murmur while my M.D. GP was glued to her computer.
Wendy
In addition, it supplies a lot of detailed questions for you to ask you “real” doc.
I find the info and the depth very helpful.
That’s what I use the internet for. When 1poorlady started having thyroid issues, I become very knowledgeable about thyroids. I wouldn’t TELL the doc his/her job, but I gain enough knowledge to ask intelligent questions.
Same with cancer…I know a lot more about cancer than I ever wanted to.
Well, I just typed some pertinent data into The Internet about my condition (specifically Google…..because that is what a number of people still use….) and both the bog standard and AI overview informed me that I probably needed a stent. The absolute opposite of what my intervention cardiologist (and also the bloke next door) think.
Of course, in checking the sources of insight for this, even the scholarly articles cited are mostly outdated (predate the introduction of PCSK9 inhibitors and achievement of reversal levels of LDL-C)
The Andy Letter still applies…
As Read: The Andy Letter | Car Talk As Read: The Andy Letter | Car Talk
Which sort of reinforces my position. It allows you to ask intelligent questions, especially if you aren’t a medical professional. The doc answers the questions, and we agree on a course of action. If I trusted Dr Google more than my actual doctor, I’d get another doctor.
Ultimately we are responsible for our own care.
I showed it to him and his response was “What do I need that for when I have a 16-lead EKG handy?”. I was actually showing it to see if he thought it a useful stocking stuffer for my daughter and her mobile/outreach services.
Oddly enough, I guess this would be most useful for PCPs with an older patient population ….which, strangely enough, is the demographic least likely to have their tickers listened to, according to our PCP. Medicare “wellness” visits don’t include auscultation as a reimbursable procedure….I found that information as gobsmackingly incongruous as she seemed to.
