By Neal Templin

When it comes to the world of medicine, artificial intelligence could create more informed patients -- or more obsessed patients.

The internet has long been one of the first places anyone suffering a mysterious medical issue turns to for information. AI can provide an even more personalized approach to finding a diagnosis. If used properly, it can make you a better patient.

Suppose you have a lump on your neck. You ask ChatGPT what it could be and send it a picture. And the AI will give you a long list of possible diagnoses, starting with common causes like swollen lymph nodes or a cold, to less common causes like thyroid nodules, to more rare but extremely worrisome causes like lymphoma or metastatic cancer.

This is similar to what a doctor would do if you came into the office. He or she would first look for the most common cause of neck lumps before considering more serious possibilities.

Suppose instead you ask ChatGPT for the worst thing the lump on your neck could be. It responds: "While many neck lumps are benign, especially if they're soft, movable, and painless, it's also important to understand what the most serious possibilities are so you can act accordingly." It then lists five different cancers that can cause lumps on the neck.

A person seeing this might go into the doctor's office and demand to be tested for cancer, which doesn't make sense until you have ruled out more common causes, says Dr. Eric Boose, a family medicine specialist who is also the associate chief medical information officer at the Cleveland Clinic.

"AI is only as good as the information given," Boose says. "If you only gave part of the story, and you didn't know to give the rest of the story, AI might go in a different direction."

For years, some patients have been googling their symptoms on the internet and then marching into the doctor's office with printouts of possible illnesses. It isn't an efficient way of finding out what is wrong with you.

"[Patients] would come in with a medical journal article, but they didn't understand what it said," says Dr. Lee Schwamm, a neurologist who is chief digital health officer at Yale Medicine. AI has the potential to help by explaining medical issues in clear, simple language, Schwamm says. "If you say, 'AI, explain to me at a sixth-grade reading level what this cat scan (computed tomography scan) means,' it immediately translates all the medical gobbledygook into clear language."

He goes on. "I really think this is the tool that's going to help patients to be more engaged in their treatment."

Indeed, AI's value to patients begins before they even see the doctor, says Dr. Paul Lukac, a pediatrician and chief AI officer at UCLA Medicine. They can use ChatGPT to refine the things they are going to tell the doctor and to come up with good questions.

"It's great for organizing and summarizing," he says. "It can really help you think things through before you see people in the office."

Suppose you are going in to see a doctor about your high blood pressure. Want to prepare better? Ask ChatGPT to adopt the persona of a cardiologist and feed you questions for a patient with high blood pressure.

A recent query came back with the following:

      1.   When were you first diagnosed with high blood pressure? 
      2.   Has your blood pressure ever been recorded at extremely high levels (e.g., >180/120 mmHg)? 
      3.   Do you have a family history of hypertension, heart disease, or stroke? 
      4.   Do you have other medical conditions -- such as diabetes, kidney disease, or high cholesterol? 
      5.   Do you smoke, consume alcohol regularly, or use recreational drugs (e.g., cocaine, amphetamines)? 

6. Are you currently experiencing any symptoms -- such as headaches, vision changes, chest pain, shortness of breath, or dizziness?

Your next step might be to once again ask ChatGPT to adopt the persona of a cardiologist, and this time give you treatments for high blood pressure. Now it tells you to eat the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet, to exercise regularly, to lose weight, to stop smoking, to limit your drinking, and so on.

In the future, AI is likely to be more involved in medicine. It may take some mundane jobs from doctors, such as note-taking, and allow them to spend more time with patients.

Wearable devices are starting to produce reams of information on patients on everything from blood pressure to heart arrhythmias to blood sugar levels. AI could eventually monitor all this, and alert you and your doctor whenever it sees worrisome developments.

None of this makes AI a substitute for a doctor. Unlike your doctor, AI isn't actually seeing and examining you -- or talking to you. While AI is designed to have a conversation with you, it is largely presenting information that it finds on the internet and elsewhere. On top of that, AI makes mistakes and doesn't always acknowledge when it doesn't know something.

"We're always going to need doctors to put some of this stuff into context," Yale's Schwamm says.

Write to Neal Templin at neal.templin@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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November 08, 2025 04:00 ET (09:00 GMT)

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