The perfect storm: Patients are turning to AI when they can't get an appointment

Patients are turning to AI when they can't get an appointment

When patients can't get a timely appointment, they don't simply wait. Medical Economics asked Rosemarie Aznavorian, D.N.P., RN, CENP, CCWP, CCRN, executive vice president of client services and chief clinical officer at MedPro Healthcare Staffing, whether physicians are hearing from patients who have turned to tools like ChatGPT for medical advice in the meantime. She said AI is one of several workarounds patients are reaching for — and it comes with real tradeoffs.

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The core risk is misdiagnosis. Many symptoms overlap across conditions, and a clinical assessment can catch what an algorithm misses. "It might tell them their issue is not cardiac-related when it could be a cardiac-related issue," Aznavorian said, "because so many signs and symptoms mimic one another." A patient who takes that reassurance at face value and delays care could arrive in a much worse state than if they had been seen earlier.

The upside, she said, is that AI can function as an educational primer. Patients who arrive having already researched their symptoms may ask sharper questions and engage more actively in their own assessment. Used that way, she said, these tools can support — rather than replace — what happens in the exam room.

"There are positives and negatives to it," Aznavorian said.