{"id":326832,"date":"2026-07-02T02:57:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T02:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/326832\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T02:57:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T02:57:32","slug":"tampa-doctor-urges-caution-as-more-patients-turn-to-ai-for-medical-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/326832\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa doctor urges caution as more patients turn to AI for medical advice"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Artificial intelligence touches so many aspects of a person\u2019s life now \u2014 health included. <\/p>\n

Tampa Bay 28 Anchor Lauren St. Germain covers medical news and she recently spoke with a local doctor who says he is seeing more and more people turning to artificial intelligence and social media for medical advice.<\/p>\n

WATCH: Tampa doctor urges caution as more patients turn to AI for medical advice<\/p>\n

Tampa doctor urges caution as more patients turn to AI for medical advice<\/p>\n

Dr. Michael Cromer is a physician with MACMED Family Practice. He told St. Germain while it is encouraging people are taking an active role in their health, artificial intelligence does create some challenges.<\/p>\n

“It can put a lot of fear and fright into patients once they see all the possibilities of what their symptoms are and it can often be an unnecessary thing that can drive up healthcare costs because they often direct us to do more tests than is clinically indicated or necessary or approved,” Dr. Cromer explained.<\/p>\n

“One thing that the computer doesn\u2019t have is they don\u2019t have clinical judgment or years of experience. That\u2019s what we bring to the equation is our clinical judgment, years of experience and then the relationship we have with the patient.”<\/p>\n

Dr. Cromer also encourages patients to do their own research, but to be careful of their sources, especially when on social media. Dr. Cromer suggests sites like Web MD and the Mayo Clinic as resources for personal research.<\/p>\n

Share Your Story with Lauren

Our health and our happiness impact our lives so much. And Tampa Bay 28 Anchor Lauren St. Germain is focused on both. From highlighting the latest medical breakthroughs to celebrating the biggest Tampa Bay Lightning Fans; Lauren wants to hear for you. Use the form below to send her a note.<\/p>\n

Contact Lauren St. Germain<\/p>\n

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Deputies say Amanda Roark, 37, was stabbed to death by her boyfriend.<\/p>\n

Friends remember Hillsborough County woman stabbed to death in Palm River<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Artificial intelligence touches so many aspects of a person\u2019s life now \u2014 health included. Tampa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[8345,2872,4038,2006,571,135077,6319,135,5910,135078,137,136,208],"class_list":["post-326832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-advice","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-doctor","tag-health","tag-lauren-st-germain","tag-medical","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-28","tag-tampa-doctors","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-wfts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}