The Truth About AI in Healthcare, Straight From a Doctor's Experience

The Rise of AI in Health Advice

In today's digital age, people are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) for health advice. With the ease of access to information, individuals can now find health-related guidance from a variety of sources, often without considering the credibility or medical expertise behind the information. This shift has significantly altered how people interact with medical professionals and whether they trust them in the first place.

The availability of health information has also coincided with historically low levels of trust in the healthcare system. A recent poll by the Annenberg Public Policy Center revealed that public trust in federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health has decreased by 5-7% over the past year. This decline in trust has led to an increased reliance on alternative sources for health advice.

AI as a Medical Alternative

While the tech world may be capitalizing on this declining trust, it is certainly making medical alternatives more convenient. People are turning to AI for answers that a doctor or medical professional would once provide. A recent survey found that 63% of respondents find AI-generated health information reliable, according to Annenberg.

Major AI players like Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic have developed health-oriented large language models (LLMs) for healthcare professionals. Rumors suggest that Apple could be developing its own health AI, while Oura has launched an experimental custom women's health LLM.

Dr. Alexa Mieses Malchuk's Perspective

Dr. Alexa Mieses Malchuk, a family physician, has seen firsthand how AI has changed how her patients interact with her and how she conducts her job. While AI can provide thorough explanations and answers to every health query, it can also get things wrong. In an interview, she discussed the usefulness and pitfalls of health AI, and how patients should approach the technology.

Using AI Effectively

Mieses Malchuk isn't against AI. In fact, she uses it to streamline administrative work, such as triaging patient messages and creating anticipatory guidance before a visit. AI companies continue to build more software for doctors and medical professionals. Recently, Amazon and Google announced their own healthcare software products for scheduling doctors' appointments, clinical documentation, and medical coding.

Administrative burdens in medicine have historically been a challenge for doctors, who often spend more time completing paperwork than serving patients face-to-face. However, Mieses Malchuk is aware of the technology's limitations.

AI as a Springboard

For medical nonprofessionals, Mieses Malchuk recommends using AI as a springboard, not as the end-all, be-all for medical advice. It can be satisfying to immediately receive an answer from one of these chatbots, and sometimes the AI's response can provide a sense of certainty that assuages worries. However, she reminds users that these tools cannot diagnose conditions, and most patients sifting through these responses aren't medically trained to know right from wrong.

AI chatbot users may be omitting important information about their medical situations, leading to fundamentally different diagnoses or treatments, Mieses Malchuk said. "Their responses are only as good as the questions we ask."

"It's not that people without medical training shouldn't have access to AI. They should be partnering with their primary care physician to help sift through what they're finding online."

The Dangers of False Confidence

As these AI health tools have grown in popularity, Mieses Malchuk has seen patients come to her less willing to share that they've done their own research using these tools but more certain about what they believe their diagnosis to be.

"Even in medicine, there's not always 100% certainty about anything. On one hand, it's great that we live in this day and age where we have access to information literally at our fingertips, but there are some real downsides to that," she noted.

Mieses Malchuk fears AI tools like ChatGPT could give people a false sense of security, telling them they don't have to go to the doctor or get a condition examined. "That could be a missed opportunity to diagnose something early," she said.

How AI Can Help Patients

Despite these concerns, Mieses Malchuk recommends using AI health tools for recommendations on general wellness advice. For example, if a patient was recently diagnosed with celiac disease and wants to know which foods they should and shouldn't eat, AI can create a meal plan, generate ideas, and provide helpful recommendations. It's also great for workout planning, and it's quite easy to create a customized workout regimen with the help of an AI tool.

All in all, it's a great wellness tool for those without medical training. But leave the diagnostics and treatments to the professionals.

"Mistrust in the medical system is growing, which is really a travesty. We take this oath to first do no harm, so the idea that these other resources are giving patients this false sense of confidence and making them think they can completely bypass seeing a physician -- it's an unfortunate step point," Mieses Malchuk said.