Primary Care
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At a Glance
Q: What’s the best way to use generative AI for my healthcare needs?
A: Generative AI works best for preparing and understanding information, while your doctor guides diagnosis, treatment, and care decisions.
- Use AI to organize summaries of information, symptoms, and appointment questions.
- Use AI to simplify medical terms.
- Find examples below of prompts patients can use.
You’ve probably heard of ChatGPT. It’s the most popular name among a fast-growing group of technology called generative AI. These tools can create text, images, and videos. They can answer detailed questions and pull information from across the web. Even create songs. All in minutes.
They’re getting more popular across all ages, with more people using them to ask detailed questions, especially about their health. OpenAI, the company that made ChatGPT, reports that about as many as 40 million people ask ChatGPT a health question each day.
That’s about one health question for every 20 interactions among hundreds of millions of users.
Dr. David de la Peña, a primary care physician working with adults 65 and older, knows “AI can be useful if used correctly,” he says. It can clarify medical language and help you better understand complex health information.
And when used carefully, Dr. de la Peña suggests, generative AI can help you prepare for an appointment, while keeping your care grounded in the expertise, judgment, and empathy of qualified clinicians.
How is generative AI used today?
Tools like ChatGPT can quickly summarize information and explain concepts that might otherwise take time to research across multiple websites. They’re “trained” on large amounts of information online and on interactions with other users with permission. This helps the tool improve the usefulness of its replies.
It’s what makes generative AI impressive. And also what makes it risky. With its conversational, confident tone, it can almost seem like there’s an expert on the other end of the screen. So when it comes to your health, Dr. de la Peña is clear:
“Nothing replaces the interaction between doctor and patient.”
He recommends an approach where it’s used to start or support conversations with a doctor.
So how can I use generative AI to prep for an appointment?
Generative AI can help patients organize information, list important questions, and help you determine goals for your appointment. And it doesn’t require that you share sensitive details.
Research shows that prepared patients tend to have more productive visits, especially older adults managing multiple symptoms, medications, or chronic conditions. And generative AI is one tool that can help.
You can use it to turn scattered information and questions about aches, pains, and concerns into a clear summary to bring to the appointment.
It’s generally safe to include the following in an entry (or prompt) into an AI tool:
| Type of Information | Example + Why It Helps |
| Age | “52 years old”: Helps AI tailor responses to your age group. |
| Gender | “Male”: May influence risk factors or guidance. |
| Education level | “High school”: Helps AI adjust complexity of explanations. |
| Existing conditions | “High blood pressure”: Provides context for questions. |
| Family history | “Parent had dementia”: Helps AI highlight relevant risk factors. |
| Medications | “Metformin”: lets AI point out interactions or considerations. |
For instance, you can type in something like “I’m a 52-year-old female with a family history of dementia. I’d like to better understand the risk and possible ways to help prevent it. I’d also like to know if X medication might make my risk worse.” Then bring what it provides you to the appointment to review with your doctor.
Be safe what you include in a prompt. Don’t give specifics like your name, address, insurance info, or screenshots of identifying details.
Doctor-approved uses for generative AI
- Clarify the main reason for the visit: Appointments are short, and many patients arrive with a swirl of concerns pulled from Google searches, past experiences, or half-remembered advice. AI can help sort through everything on your mind and offer suggestions for what might be best to bring to your doctor’s attention.
Prompt example: “I’m worried about several things related to my knee pain. Help me turn these concerns into a clear, focused reason for my primary care appointment.”
- Organize symptoms into a short, usable summary: Clinicians look for patterns, like when symptoms started, how often they occur, what makes them better or worse, and how they’ve changed over time. Many patients have this information, but not in an organized way. By recounting your experience in your own words, you can ask AI to help shape it into a concise summary that mirrors how clinicians think.
Prompt example: “Here’s what I’ve noticed over the past few months. Help me organize this into a short summary for my doctor, including when the symptoms started, how often they occur, and any changes over time.”
- Prepare questions in advance: It’s common to think of your best questions after you’ve already left the appointment. AI can help you get together questions ahead of time.
Prompt example: “What questions should I consider asking my primary care doctor about managing high blood pressure, including lifestyle changes and medication options?”
Use AI after an appointment
Generative AI can also help patients after a visit to
- Translate medical language: “My doctor used this term, and I forgot to ask what it meant. Explain it in everyday language.”
And don’t worry about misspelling. Most of these tools are trained to decipher what attempted words are. - Create simple tracking tools: “My doctor asked me to track hip pain. Create a simple daily log I can use between appointments.”
The goal with these tools is to help you stay organized or help you understand, not recommend a diagnosis or treatment. Changing medications, interpreting labs, and developing care plans should always be done by and with a doctor or care team.
If you need some help keeping all these terms in order, here are some of the terms and explanations from this article.
Use AI, trust your provider
Many patients, especially older adults, were taught not to “take up too much time” during a doctor’s visit. Dr. de la Peña encourages preparation and curiosity. Whether through AI, written notes, or conversations with a trusted friend, organizing thoughts ahead of time can help patients feel more confident and engaged.
“Time is the resource,” he says. “Anything that helps us use it better. That’s where AI can help.”
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Make a new appointment to see a Years Ahead Provider.People Often Ask
You can share basic details like age, symptoms, conditions, and medications. Avoid entering your name, address, insurance information, or screenshots of medical records. Keep prompts general and review any AI output with your doctor.
Yes. Generative AI can help you list questions, identify your main concern, and organize symptoms into a short summary. Bringing a clear outline can help you use appointment time more effectively.
Simple, direct prompts work well. Describe what you’ve noticed, when symptoms started, and what makes them better or worse. Ask the tool to organize this into a short summary or list of questions for your doctor.
Yes. Generative AI can translate medical terms into everyday language and give examples. Use it to clarify what a word means, but confirm any medical decisions or next steps with your care team.
AI can create simple logs for symptoms, pain levels, or medication routines. These tools help you stay organized between visits, but they should not replace clinical advice or guide treatment changes.
