Tag: KFF Health News

AI in Healthcare: Enhancing Patient Understanding

Although many patients find AI helpful for understanding medical information, experts caution about potential inaccuracies and privacy risks, urging careful use and verification of AI-generated responses.

This information is current as of the date of original publication or update. It may have changed by the time you read this. I invite you to fact-check what you read here.

This information is not intended for diagnosis or treatment. Before making health decisions, discuss with your physician or other qualified healthcare provider to decide what is right for you.

I recently had a medical procedure and when the results came into my patient portal, I logged in to read the results. The diagnosis was something I don’t have much professional experience with, so I did what many patients to with their medical information. I went online and searched for information.

Although this time I didn’t stop with a search engine. I used an AI assistant and was amazed at how easy it was not only to read information but also to ask questions and receive an answer. It even suggested additional resources and next steps.

Then I found this article on KFF indicating that I am not alone. And probably many of you have already used AI for this and other purposed. So I am sharing it here.

An AI Assistant Can Interpret Those Lab Results for You

(Edited for readability and length.)

written by Kate Ruder, September 15, 2025

When Judith Miller had routine blood work done in July, she got a phone alert the same day that her lab results were posted online. So, when her doctor messaged her the next day that her overall tests were fine, Miller wrote back to ask about the elevated carbon dioxide and low anion gap listed in the report.

While the 76-year-old Milwaukee resident waited to hear back, Miller did something patients increasingly do when they can’t reach their health care team. She put her test results into Claude and asked the AI assistant to evaluate the data.

Medical Records plus AI equals Understanding

“Claude helped give me a clear understanding of the abnormalities,” Miller said. The generative AI model didn’t report anything alarming, so she wasn’t anxious while waiting to hear back from her doctor, she said.

Patients have unprecedented access to their medical records, often through online patient portals such as MyChart. Federal law requires health organizations to immediately release electronic health information, such as notes on doctor visits and test results.

Screenshot of the MyChart app

A study published in 2023 found that 96% of patients surveyed want immediate access to their records, even if their provider hasn’t reviewed them.

And many patients are using large language models, or LLMs, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini, to interpret their records.

Use AI for Health Cautiously

That help comes with some risk, though. Physicians and patient advocates warn that AI chatbots can produce wrong answers and that sensitive medical information might not remain private.

Yet, most adults are cautious about AI and health. Fifty-six percent of those who use or interact with AI are not confident that information provided by AI chatbots is accurate, according to a 2024 KFF poll. (KFF is a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.)

“LLMs are theoretically very powerful and they can give great advice, but they can also give truly terrible advice depending on how they’re prompted,”

Adam Rodman, internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Adam Rodman Is an internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Massachusetts and the chair of a steering group on generative AI at Harvard Medical School.

Justin Honce, a neuroradiologist at UCHealth in Colorado, said it can be very difficult for patients who are not medically trained to know whether AI chatbots make mistakes.

“Ultimately, it’s just the need for caution overall with LLMs. With the latest models, these concerns are continuing to get less and less of an issue but have not been entirely resolved,” Honce said.

Rodman has seen a surge in AI use among his patients in the past six months. In one case, a patient took a screenshot of his hospital lab results on MyChart then uploaded them to ChatGPT to prepare questions ahead of his appointment.

Rodman said he welcomes patients’ showing him how they use AI, and that their research creates an opportunity for discussion.

Roughly 1 in 7 adults over 50 use AI to receive health information, according to a recent poll from the University of Michigan, while 1 in 4 adults under age 30 do so, according to the KFF poll.

Photo by Beyzaa Yurtkuran on Pexels.com

Should AI Give Medical Advice?

Using the internet to advocate for better care for oneself isn’t new. Patients have traditionally used websites such as WebMD, PubMed, or Google to search for the latest research and have sought advice from other patients on social media platforms like Facebook or Reddit.

But AI chatbots’ ability to generate personalized recommendations or second opinions in seconds is novel.

Liz Salmi, communications and patient initiatives director at OpenNotes, an academic lab at Beth Israel Deaconess that advocates for transparency in health care, had wondered how good AI is at interpretation, specifically for patients.

In a proof-of-concept study published this year, Salmi and colleagues analyzed the accuracy of ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini responses to patients’ questions about a clinical note. All three AI models performed well, but how patients framed their questions mattered, Salmi said

For example, telling the AI chatbot to take on the persona of a clinician and asking it one question at a time improved the accuracy of its responses.

Are Medical Records Private with AI?

Privacy is a concern, Salmi said, so it’s critical to remove personal information like your name or Social Security number from prompts. Data goes directly to tech companies that have developed AI models, Rodman said, adding that he is not aware of any that comply with federal privacy law or consider patient safety

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, warned on a podcast last month about putting personal information into ChatGPT.

“Many people who are new to using large language models might not know about hallucinations,” Salmi said, referring to a response that may appear sensible but is inaccurate.

For example, OpenAI’s Whisper, an AI-assisted transcription tool used in hospitals, introduced an imaginary medical treatment into a transcript, according to a report by The Associated Press.

Using generative AI demands a new type of digital health literacy that includes asking questions in a particular way, verifying responses with other AI models, talking to your health care team, and protecting your privacy online, said Salmi and Dave deBronkart, a cancer survivor and patient advocate who writes a blog devoted to patients’ use of AI.

Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com

Can AI help physicians communicate results?

Patients aren’t the only ones using AI to explain test results. Stanford Health Care has launched an AI assistant that helps its physicians draft interpretations of clinical tests and lab results to send to patients.

Colorado researchers studied the accuracy of ChatGPT-generated summaries of 30 radiology reports, along with four patients’ satisfaction with them. Of the 118 valid responses from patients, 108 indicated the ChatGPT summaries clarified details about the original report.

But ChatGPT sometimes overemphasized or underemphasized findings, and a small but significant number of responses indicated patients were more confused after reading the summaries, said Honce, who participated in the preprint study.

Meanwhile, after four weeks and a couple of follow-up messages from Miller in MyChart, Miller’s doctor ordered a repeat of her blood work and an additional test that Miller suggested. The results came back normal.

Miller was relieved and said she was better informed because of her AI inquiries.

“It’s a very important tool in that regard,” Miller said. “It helps me organize my questions and do my research and level the playing field.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

Subscribe to KFF Health News’ free Morning Briefing.

This article first appeared on KFF Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This article also appeared on NPR.ORG.

AI in Medical Education

I graduated from college, medical school, and residency without using a computer for training or patient care. When computers and the internet came into widespread use, medical education and medical practice changed to embrace that new technology.

Now AI is doing the same thing. Here you can learn how Harvard Medical School is building artificial intelligence into the curriculum to train the next generation of doctors.

Reader Reflection and Response

I hope you have learned something new in this post, or it confirms something you already knew.

How are you using technology to manage your healthcare? Do you use options such as

  • health record portals
  • online scheduling
  • video visits
  • internet search for medical information, with or without AI

Were you aware that doctors are using AI to create office notes and result summaries?

What concerns do you have about the value and safety of using AI in healthcare? What else do you need to know or want to learn about AI use ?

Cover Image

The cover image was created by the Jetpack AI Assistant from Automatic, Inc.

Exploring the HEART of Health

I hope the information in this post gives you inspiration.

I’d love for you to follow this blog. I share information and inspiration to help you turn health challenges into health opportunities.

Add your name to the subscribe box to be notified of new posts by email. Click the link to read the post and browse other content. It’s that simple. No spam.

I enjoy seeing who is new to Watercress Words. When you subscribe, I will visit your blog or website. Thanks and see you next time.

Medical stethoscope and heart on a textured background

Dr Aletha

Why You Should Care About Medical Debt Legislation

In this post I share highlights about the bipartisan efforts among politicians to correct the medical debt crisis affecting millions of Americans. Laws limiting aggressive billing and debt collection have passed in over 20 states since 2021. Advocates from both parties emphasize the urgency of reforming healthcare debt practices to protect vulnerable patients. This is another reason why voting is vitally important this year.

updated December 10, 2024

I published this post almost 2 months ago. Since then, this issue has become headline news.

The CEO of United Healthcare Insurance Company was shot and killed outside a hotel in New York City. The assailant is a young man who is reported to have expressed anger with the medical insurance industry. New information is unfolding daily.

While I personally and professionally have had issues with insurance companies, nothing in this post should be considered criticism or disparagement of the industry. This post presents an overview of medical debt and what legislators do to address it, not necessarily the causes.

In later posts, I plan to discuss unexpected or excessive medical debt, including how to work with insurance companies and hold them accountable.

Violence is not an acceptable solution and should not be glorified.

the original post

With every election we think it is the most contentious ever, but this year more so. And it’s not just the presidential election that is adversarial, even state and local contests can be vicious.

So it is refreshing to see this report about an issue that some politicians from both major parties agree on, excessive medical debt. Even with good medical insurance, families may owe thousands of dollars on unexpected, unplanned, or catastrophic illnesses.

EMERGENCY-sign
Photo by Pixabay

“About 100 million people in the U.S. are burdened by some form of health care debt, forcing millions to drain savings, take out second mortgages, or cut back on food and other essentials.”

But according to this article, laws have been passed in 20 states since 2021 limiting aggressive hospital billing, and limiting debt collectors.

Efforts to relieve patients from the burden of medical debt have been supported by both Republicans and Democrats and happen in both “red” and “blue” states.

It doesn’t matter if, as a conservative, I’m saying these things, or if Bernie Sanders is saying these things, At the end of the day, it should be all our jobs to advocate for the invisible.

source: Republican Dale Folwell, NC State Treasurer, referencing Vermont’s liberal U.S. senator.

I’ve highlighted some of the key points in this report that I am reprinting by permission from KFF Health News.

Even Political Rivals Agree That Medical Debt Is an Urgent Issue

reprinted by permission from KFF Health News

Noam N. Levey

While hot-button healthcare issues such as abortion and the Affordable Care Act roil the presidential race, Democrats and Republicans in statehouses around the country have been quietly working together to tackle the nation’s medical debt crisis.

New laws to curb aggressive hospital billing, to expand charity care for lower-income patients, and to rein in debt collectors have been enacted in more than 20 states since 2021.

Democrats championed most measures. But the legislative efforts often passed with Republican support. In a few states, GOP lawmakers led the push to expand patient protections.

“Regardless of their party, regardless of their background … any significant medical procedure can place people into bankruptcy,” Florida House Speaker Paul Renner, a conservative Republican, said in an interview. “This is a real issue.”

Renner, who has shepherded controversial measures to curb abortion rights and expand the death penalty in Florida, this year also led an effort to limit when hospitals could send patients to collections. It garnered unanimous support in the Florida Legislature.

Bipartisan measures in other states have gone further, barring unpaid medical bills from consumer credit reports and restricting medical providers from placing liens on patients’ homes.

About 100 million people in the U.S. are burdened by some form of health care debt, forcing millions to drain savings, take out second mortgages, or cut back on food and other essentials, KFF Health News has found. A quarter of those with debt owed more than $5,000 in 2022.

“Republicans in the legislature seem more open to protecting people from medical debt than from other kinds of debt,” said Marceline White, executive director of Economic Action Maryland, which helped lead efforts in that state to stop medical providers from garnishing the wages of low-income patients. That bill drew unanimous support from Democrats and Republicans

“There seems to be broad agreement that you shouldn’t lose your home or your life savings because you got ill,” White said. “That’s just a basic level of fairness.”

Medical debt remains a more polarizing issue in Washington, where the Biden administration has pushed several efforts to tackle the issue, including a proposed rule by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, to bar all medical debt from consumer credit reports.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who is spearheading the administration’s medical debt campaign, has touted the work on the presidential campaign trail while calling for new efforts to retire healthcare debt for millions of Americans.

Former President Donald Trump doesn’t typically talk about medical debt while stumping. But congressional Republicans have blasted the CFPB proposal, which House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) called “regulatory overreach.”

Nevertheless, pollster Michael Perry, who has surveyed Americans extensively about health care, said that conservative voters typically wary of government seem to view medical debt through another lens. “I think they feel it’s so stacked against them that they, as patients, don’t really have a voice,” he said. “The partisan divides we normally see just aren’t there.”

When Arizona consumer advocates put a measure on the ballot in 2022 to cap interest rates on medical debt, 72% of voters backed the initiative.

Similarly, nationwide polls have found more than 80% of Republicans and Democrats back limits on medical debt collections and stronger requirements that hospitals provide financial aid to patients.

Perry surfaced something else that may be driving bipartisan interest in medical debt: growing mistrust as health systems get bigger and act more like major corporations. “Hospitals aren’t what they used to be,” he said. “That is making it clear that profit and greed are driving lots of the decision-making.”

Photo by Tom Fisk on Pexels.com (for illustration only)

Not every state effort to address medical debt has garnered broad bipartisan support.

When Colorado last year became the first state to bar medical debt from residents’ credit reports, just one Republican lawmaker backed the measure. A Minnesota bill that did the same thing this year passed without a single GOP vote.

But elsewhere, similarly tough measures have sailed through.

A 2024 Illinois bill to bar credit reporting for medical debt passed unanimously in the state Senate and cleared the House of Representatives 109-2. In Rhode Island, not a single GOP lawmaker opposed a credit reporting ban.

And when the California Legislature took up a 2021 bill to require hospitals in the state to provide more financial assistance to patients, it passed 72-0 in the state Assembly and 39-0 in the Senate.

Even some conservative states, such as Oklahoma, have taken steps, albeit more modest. A new law there bars medical providers from pursuing patients for debts if the provider has not publicly posted its prices. The measure, signed by the state’s Republican governor, passed unanimously.

New Mexico state Sen. Steve Neville, a Republican who backed legislation to restrict aggressive collections against low-income patients in that state, said he was simply being pragmatic.

“There was not much advantage to spending a lot of time trying to do collections on indigent patients,” Neville said. “If they don’t have the money, they don’t have the money.” Three of 12 GOP senators supported the measure.

North Carolina state Treasurer Dale Folwell, a Republican who as a state legislator spearheaded a 2012 effort to ban same-sex marriage, said all elected officials, no matter their party, should care about what medical debt is doing to patients.

“It doesn’t matter if, as a conservative, I’m saying these things, or if Bernie Sanders is saying these things,” Folwell said, referencing Vermont’s liberal U.S. senator. “At the end of the day, it should be all our jobs to advocate for the invisible.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

Subscribe to KFF Health News’ free Morning Briefing.

What your vote means in 2024

Here is a reminder of who we will elect November 5, 2024. Graphic from the AARP Newsletter

Exploring the HEART of Health

In an upcoming post, I will explain how to avoid and manage excessive medical debt, so please subscribe. For now, if you need help, try this link.

How to get help with medical bills

Please share your experience with medical debt, other readers would benefit from learning how you solved it, or how it continues to affect your life.

I’d love for you to follow this blog. I share information and inspiration to help you turn health challenges into health opportunities.

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I enjoy seeing who is new to Watercress Words. When you subscribe, I will visit your blog or website. Thanks and see you next time.

Dr. Aletha

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