{"id":238619,"date":"2026-01-10T23:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T23:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/238619\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T23:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T23:42:10","slug":"american-patients-are-increasingly-turning-to-ai-for-medical-advice-so-are-their-doctors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/238619\/","title":{"rendered":"American patients are increasingly turning to AI for medical advice \u2014 so are their doctors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-fiuwhu\">With the world weighing up the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/11\/02\/opinion\/ai-privacy.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">pitfalls<\/a> of giving AI access to sensitive personal data, OpenAI just unveiled a service where people can upload medical records directly to its chatbot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-fiuwhu\">On Wednesday, the company <a href=\"https:\/\/openai.com\/index\/introducing-chatgpt-health\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">announced<\/a> the launch of ChatGPT Health, described as a \u201cdedicated experience\u201d for health information that will live as a tab within ChatGPT. According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.openai.com\/pdf\/2cb29276-68cd-4ec6-a5f4-c01c5e7a36e9\/OpenAI-AI-as-a-Healthcare-Ally-Jan-2026.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">report<\/a> from OpenAI, more than 40 million people globally already ask ChatGPT health-related questions every single day, equating to about 5% of all messages on the platform.<\/p>\n<p>Chat, what are my treatment options?<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-fiuwhu\">The service, designed to help people \u201cfeel more informed, prepared, and confident navigating [their] health,\u201d allows users in the US to connect medical records and <a href=\"https:\/\/restofworld.org\/2026\/openai-has-launched-chatgpt-health-should-we-trust-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">data from apps<\/a> and wearable devices to ChatGPT.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-fiuwhu\">OpenAI underscored that Health is built with additional, layered protections for user information, including \u201cpurpose-built encryption.\u201d It also emphasized that the service is \u201cnot intended for diagnosis or treatment,\u201d and should instead be used to \u201csupport\u201d existing medical care. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-fiuwhu\">But it seems that AI is already being used to support medical professionals, even more directly. A study conducted by the American Medical Association in November 2024, published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ama-assn.org\/practice-management\/digital-health\/2-3-physicians-are-using-health-ai-78-2023\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">last February<\/a>, found that two-thirds of American physicians reported using health AI at least once in 2024, up from 38% in 2023. <\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"US physicians AI\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;bottom:0;right:0;box-sizing:border-box;padding:0;border:none;margin:auto;display:block;width:0;height:0;min-width:100%;max-width:100%;min-height:100%;max-height:100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sherwood News<\/p>\n<p>Just what the doctor prompted<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-fiuwhu\">While many medical professionals said they were already using the tech for documentation purposes and translation services, a significant proportion also reported using AI for help with treatment, including surgery guidance (30%), prediction of health risks (25%), health recommendations (21%), and triage support (20%).<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-fiuwhu\">Interestingly, the AMA found 30% of US physicians said they used AI to assist with diagnoses \u2014 the same thing that many turn to ChatGPT for, with OpenAI\u2019s report finding that 55% of US adults used AI tools to \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/01\/05\/chatgpt-openai-health-insurance-aca\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">check or explore symptoms<\/a>\u201d in the three months prior to the survey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the world weighing up the pitfalls of giving AI access to sensitive personal data, OpenAI just unveiled&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-238619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}