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\n Around 230 million people already ask health questions on ChatGPT every week.
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\n Opinion<\/p>\n
\n As patients turn to AI for advice, GPs can help them use it well, while advocating for the guardrails they need, says Dr Janice Tan.
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\n Around 230 million people already ask health questions on ChatGPT every week.
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newsGP weekly poll
\n Last week, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health \u2013 a platform where patients can upload their medical records and get AI-generated health information.
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\nThis week, Anthropic has introduced Claude for Healthcare, with integrations allowing individuals to connect their health records, lab results, and fitness data.
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\nAround 230 million people already ask health questions on ChatGPT every week.
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\nThis isn\u2019t some distant future scenario. This is happening now, in our consulting rooms.
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\nThe reaction among my GP colleagues has been mixed. Some see genuine possibility. Others worry about misinformation, liability, what happens to the doctor-patient relationship when patients arrive already informed.
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\nI get it. We\u2019re all exhausted, the system is barely holding together, and now there\u2019s one more thing changing.
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\nBut I think we\u2019re asking the wrong questions.
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\nWhere we actually are
\nThe RACGP\u2019s Health of the Nation 2025<\/a> report paints a stark picture of Australian general practice.
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\nIt reveals that 68% of GPs identify the increasing complexity of patient presentations as the greatest challenge facing the profession.
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\nIt also shows 71% of GPs nominated mental health reasons as a top reason for patient presentations, up 10% since the survey began in 2017.
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\nAnd the new My Health Record sharing by default legislation means pathology and diagnostic imaging reports will now be automatically uploaded to patients\u2019 records, meaning patients can access their results before we\u2019ve even had a chance to review them.
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\nWhen patients are stuck waiting days or weeks for an appointment, what are they supposed to do about their worsening symptoms?
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\nWhat about that abnormal-looking pathology report sitting in their My Health Record? Do they just sit there anxiously waiting?
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\nOne of my favourite consults was with an AI-informed patient
\nA patient came in last month having already accessed her knee MRI report through My Health Record and discussed it with ChatGPT.
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\nShe walked in with specific questions about her meniscal tear, the relationship between her symptoms and the imaging findings, whether she needed surgery or could try conservative management first.
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\nWe had an actual conversation \u2013 two people working through a problem together. We used our limited time for what actually mattered.
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\nThere was clinical reasoning, there was shared decision making, and we addressed her specific concerns about returning to the sport she loved.
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\nThat consultation was one of the best I\u2019d had all week.
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\nThe mistakes we all make
\nIt\u2019s important to recognise that both AI and clinicians get things wrong.
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\nAI can lack context, oversimplify, miss the subtle cues that come from years of pattern recognition.
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\nBut we miss diagnoses too \u2013 we\u2019re influenced by cognitive biases, by how tired we are, by the 20 patients we\u2019ve already seen that morning.
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\nWhen patients started arriving with Google searches years ago, we adapted, and AI is simply the next iteration.
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\nThey are more sophisticated, yes, but the fundamental dynamic is the same: patients trying to understand their own bodies using whatever tools are available.
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\nPerhaps the real innovation here isn\u2019t the technology. The innovation is the shift in what we think the clinician-patient relationship should be.
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\nWhat the resistance is really about
\nWhen colleagues express concern about patients using AI, I hear exhaustion more than anything else.
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\nHow relentlessly everything is changing. The funding model. The workforce crisis. The regulatory environment. The expectations of what we can deliver with the resources we have.
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\nWe\u2019re all tired.
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\nSo, when something else changes such as patients start using AI to understand their health before they see us, it feels like one more thing to manage rather than a potential help.
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\nBut here\u2019s what I keep coming back to: anything that helps patients understand their conditions, ask better questions, and engage more meaningfully in their care makes my job better.
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\nThe consultations where patients arrive informed are often the most satisfying.
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\nThe real pitfalls we need to watch for
\nLet\u2019s be clear about where AI can genuinely cause harm.
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\nAn algorithm can\u2019t feel the subtle fullness of an abdomen that makes you think twice about that \u2018simple\u2019 gastro presentation.
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\nIt can\u2019t pick up on the hesitation in someone\u2019s voice when they say they\u2019re fine that tells you they\u2019re absolutely not fine.
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\nIt can\u2019t recognise when chest pain sounds cardiac despite a normal ECG, or when someone\u2019s declining function matters more than any single test result.
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\nAI also can\u2019t account for the social context that changes everything: the patient who can\u2019t afford the medication you\u2019re discussing, the family dynamics that make a treatment plan unworkable, the health literacy that\u2019s lower than it appears, the cultural considerations that shape how someone experiences and reports symptoms.
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\nThere are real concerns about data privacy, about who owns the information patients upload, about how that data might be used.
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\nThere\u2019s the risk of patients misinterpreting information, of AI reinforcing health anxiety, of people delaying necessary care because an algorithm told them to wait and see.
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\nThese pitfalls matter. They deserve serious attention and thoughtful safeguards.
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\nBut they\u2019re also why we need to be involved in shaping how patients use these tools, rather than standing on the sidelines saying they shouldn\u2019t.
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\nTo my fellow GPs
\nI\u2019m choosing to see this an opportunity for us. This is our moment to lead.
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\nWe can be at the table shaping how AI integrates into patient care, teaching patients how to use these tools thoughtfully – which questions to ask, how to interpret what they\u2019re reading, when AI\u2019s limitations mean they need human expertise.
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\nWe could use the health literacy patients gain from AI to skip the basics and get straight to the complex clinical reasoning that actually requires our training.
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\nThe technology is here. Patients are using it.
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\nWe can help them use it well, advocate for the guardrails they need, and finally build the partnership model of care we\u2019ve been talking about for years.
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\nOr we can spend our energy mourning a paternalistic model that should have ended decades ago.
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\nThe future is here whether we\u2019re ready or not.
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\nI\u2019d rather help build it than watch it happen to us.
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\nAbout the author
\nDr Janice Tan<\/a> is a Sydney GP who is passionate about innovation in primary care. She\u2019s General Manager of Clinical Innovation at Bupa and contributes to the RACGP\u2019s\u00a0Expert Committee for Practice Management and Technology and the Specific Interest Group for Digital Health and Innovation. All views expressed here are her own.
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\n AI<\/a> artificial intelligence<\/a> ChatGPT<\/a>
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\n Research has found most people return to their original weight after stopping weight-loss medication; have you seen this among your patients?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Opinion
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