AI has well and truly arrived in the GP consulting room.
Patients are using it. Doctors are using it. Medical software is using it. And increasingly I find myself asking patients a new, non-judgemental question:
“Have you used AI to help you with this?”
I actually think this is a great question.
Patients have always searched for health information. Before AI there was the Women’s Weekly, Dr Google, Auntie on Facebook, the neighbour who once worked at a pharmacy, and that friend who definitely knows someone who had exactly the same rash.
AI is simply the newest member of the team.
Although, to be fair, it is the only member of the team available at 2 am who never tells you to make an appointment and might agree with everything you say.
It is becoming increasingly clear that in medicine, AI, used sensibly, can be really helpful for the patient AND the GP.
The good stuff
AI can help patients understand medical terminology, organise a complicated medical history, prepare questions before an appointment and make sense of information they have already been given.
It can also be useful when someone is frightened or overwhelmed and wants to work out what questions they should ask their GP.
I would much rather a patient bring their concerns, questions and even their AI research into my consulting room so we can work through it together, than sit at home worrying, second guessing or trying to navigate complicated health information alone.
Recent Australian medical commentary suggests GPs should neither dismiss AI information automatically nor accept it blindly.
One very sensible approach is:
Acknowledge: Recognise the work the patient has already done.
Explore: Ask what they put into the AI and why they used it.
Assess: Compare the AI response with the patient’s history, examination and Australian medical guidelines.
Plan: Work out together what happens next.
That is really just good general practice.
AI can be the beginning of a conversation. It should not be the end of one.
Because AI cannot examine you
This is still a rather important limitation.
AI cannot feel the lump in your abdomen, listen to your lungs, notice that you look unusually pale or see the subtle change in your behaviour that makes an experienced clinician think something is not quite right.
It may not know your full medical history, medications, family history or the significance of something you forgot to mention.
It may also give advice based on American rather than Australian guidelines.
And occasionally AI can be spectacularly confident while being completely wrong.
AI has an extraordinary ability to deliver complete nonsense with the confidence of someone who has never once doubted themselves.
It can also produce an impressive list of 17 possible diagnoses.
The trick in medicine is working out which one actually belongs to the person sitting in front of you.
What about privacy?
This is one area where I think both doctors and patients are right to ask questions.
AI scribes are increasingly appearing in Australian consulting rooms. They can listen to a consultation and help the doctor prepare clinical notes, potentially meaning less time staring at a computer and more time looking at you.
That is a real benefit.
But a GP consultation can also contain some of the most private information you will ever share. Mental health, medications, relationships, sexual health, family problems and medical history may all come up in the same conversation.
The RACGP advises practices using AI scribes to consider issues including patient consent, privacy, data security, where information is processed and stored and whether data could be used for other purposes.
Recent cybersecurity concerns involving Medicare related systems are another timely reminder that health information needs to be treated carefully.
Most importantly, you are allowed to ask questions.
If your GP asks whether an AI scribe can listen to your consultation, it is perfectly reasonable to ask what it does, whether audio is retained, where your information goes and how it is protected.
And if you are uncomfortable, you can say no.
No offence taken. No raised eyebrow. No judgement. Your doctor can simply take notes the old fashioned way.
Personally, I remain cautious about having my own and my patients’ medical consultations recorded by AI. That may change as the technology, regulation and safeguards evolve.
Fortunately for me, I went to high school in the golden age of the 80s, where we all learnt to touch type.
For now, I am sticking with that method.
It also means I can use some judgement about what needs to go into the permanent medical record. Sometimes “general discussion regarding personal issues causing worry” is all that is necessary, rather than documenting every deeply personal detail someone has trusted me with.
So asking your doctor:
“Where is my information going?”
does not make you a difficult patient.
It makes you a sensible one.
Are doctors outsourcing their brains?
This is another question worth asking.
There is increasing discussion in the medical profession about whether doctors and patients could become overly dependent on AI and gradually stop exercising some of their own judgement.
I think that risk is real.
AI can calculate a child’s medication dose from their weight in seconds. It can remind a doctor about a guideline or suggest a diagnosis we might not immediately have considered.
Excellent.
I am very happy for AI to do some of the boring bits. I am rather less enthusiastic about outsourcing my frontal lobe. I worked hard to get my medical degrees and I want to keep using my knowledge!
I don’t want an AI system listening to a consultation, deciding the diagnosis, selecting the management pathway and suggesting the Medicare billing item while the doctor simply clicks accept.
Clinical judgement is a skill.
Like most skills, if we stop practising it, we risk losing some of it.
AI should help and challenge our clinical reasoning, not replace it.
A small word of caution about mental health
There is also an emerging discussion about how prolonged AI conversations may affect some people who are already vulnerable or experiencing mental health difficulties.
I have recently seen this in my own general practice, so the medical discussion around what is sometimes being called “AI psychosis” caught my attention.
This is not currently an official clinical diagnosis, and we should be careful not to overstate the evidence. The concern is that because AI can be very agreeable, it may sometimes reinforce unusual beliefs rather than challenge them.
For most people using AI, this is not something to be alarmed about.
It is simply another reminder that AI is a tool, not a replacement for human connection or professional mental health care.
So should patients use AI for health?
Yes, with some sensible guardrails.
Use it to learn and explore questions about your health.
Use it to organise your thoughts.
Use it to generate questions for your doctor.
And use it to find reliable Australian health information, rather than relying solely on the AI answer.
Some of my favourite places to send patients are:
Better Health Channel
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/
Excellent, easy to understand Australian information about health conditions, prevention, healthy living and treatments.
Healthdirect Australia
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/
Government funded Australian health information, including a symptom checker, health service finder and 24 hour health advice line.
Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
https://www.health.gov.au/topics
A useful starting point for vaccination, screening, medicines, preventive health and Australian health programs.
Jean Hailes for Women’s Health
https://www.jeanhailes.org.au/
One of my favourites for reliable Australian information about women’s health, including periods, contraception, menopause, pelvic health and healthy ageing.
Healthy Male
https://healthymale.org.au/
Reliable Australian information covering men’s physical, sexual and mental health.
You can even tell your AI:
“Please answer this using reliable Australian health sources such as Healthdirect, Better Health Channel and Australian Government health information, and give me the links so I can check them myself.”
That is a much better use of AI than simply asking:
“What do I have?”
Be careful about entering highly sensitive personal information, and don’t let a chatbot make major decisions about medications, diagnoses or treatment without discussing them with an appropriate health professional.
And bring the conversation to your GP.
We are not offended.
Well, most of us aren’t.
Screenshots are welcome. A 47 page AI transcript may require you to bring your GP some coffee and book a double!
And then there is the bit AI hasn’t mastered
As a country GP, this is often my favourite part of the consultation.
The banter.
The first few minutes spent discussing dogs, babies, rain, potholes, footy and how amazing sheep and cattle prices are at the moment, before the patient finally says:
“Anyway Doc, while I’m here…”
That apparently irrelevant conversation is often anything but irrelevant.
It is where relationships are built.
It is where GPs notice change.
And it is often where people eventually tell us what they were really worried about.
AI might know the current price of lamb per kilogram. It probably doesn’t know that asking about the kids or the farm is sometimes how a GP discovers what is really going on.
Perhaps AI will learn that too.
But for now, I think there is still plenty of room for both of us.
Use AI as a tool. Keep a human in the loop. And when it comes to your health, bring the information, the questions and even the AI chat to your GP. We can work through it together.
For more practical, evidence based information about prevention and everyday health, visit LifeVest Health Programs at https://lifevest.com.au/
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