How to Use AI to Prepare for Your Next Doctor’s Appointment

Описание: December 31, 2025 - Cancer Patient Lab Session 174
Full transcript: docs.google.com/document/d/1ZZKORcs6OjoSJ4LwVFsKya8wyTWV7eFFUg_u3MaceTo/edit?usp=sharing
Join the discussion: community.cancerpatientlab.org

“What's really interesting is, especially when there's a rare cancer involved, how little your medical team knows. You have very little information to go on, and that puts a burden on the patient. Often, we don't realize it. That's why these support groups are brilliant and very, very empowering. When you find them, stick to them, because this is how I've been able to advance my understanding while remaining calm and supported, because there's so much to learn. And this particular tool, AI literacy, has been very, very interesting, with all of its caveats and all of its limitations and hallucinations and its propensity for making things up.” – Hazel

“You have to make AI stay on course. If AI is unconstrained, it's going to give you bogus answers. It's going to lose control. It's going to hallucinate. Tell it: ‘I want the standard of care. I want evidence. I want you to ask me questions. Don't paraphrase for me.’” – Russ Hollyer

“ChatGPT is very focused on standard practice. It doesn't give other alternatives unless you specifically ask for them. For example, I asked about functional testing, and it said, ‘Yes, that's exactly the best moment to do that. It's ideal when having surgery.’ But it didn't bring it up spontaneously. That's a little bit of a catch: if you want to understand how your current situation would normally be treated and why, this is ideal. It gives you all the answers, and you can question it back and forth to understand why it makes sense.” – Chris Apfel, MD

Meeting Summary
A meeting with your doctor is both a significant opportunity and a source of emotional concern for cancer patients and their caregivers. The visit with your doctor is a rare opportunity for you to actively engage in your cancer testing and treatment decisions. If you understand the options and their side effects, as well as your needs and preferences, you can advocate for an approach that is better aligned with them. At the same time, a doctor visit can be a time of concern. Many people feel overwhelmed, awash in a sea of several dozen concerns, without a clear focus on the key items amidst the noise in their heads. "What should I ask?" "What might they ask me?" Many patients and caregivers feel exposed, vulnerable, and at risk of being embarrassed.

To prepare for a doctor's appointment, you need to structure your conversation. You need a decision-making framework with information inputs (your needs and preferences, medical history, and ensuring you have the best, personalized testing information), clear decision options and criteria, and an overall long-term strategy for your care. AI can help. You can enter your needs, preferences, and medical history for personalization, then ask the AI questions.

To help with this process, we introduced a specific example of a patient preparing for a meeting with a medical team. The patient used instructions and prompts developed by a small Cancer Patient Lab working group to develop questions to bring to her next doctor’s appointment.

Discussion topics include:

Why should you prepare for your doctor's appointments?

How can AI help you prepare for your doctor's appointments?

What information should you input to AI to prepare for your doctor's appointment?

What steps can you use to work with an AI tool to prepare for your doctor’s appointment?

How should you interact with your doctor to ensure a successful conversation?

What did session participants learn from their interactions with AI and the Cancer Patient Lab community that changed her questions for her appointment?

Learn more:
○ “How You Can Use the Cancer Patient Lab Chatbot to Answer Your Questions”
○ "How Citizen Scientists Are Using AI to Guide Their Testing and Treatment Decisions" (Hollyer)
○ "Illuminating the Path of Cancer Care with a Chatbot" (Liu, CareBud)
○ “Opening up Access to Cancer Data for Patients" (Nothaft)
○ “How You Can Use AI to Answer Your Cancer Questions”
○ “How Do You Safely Manage Your Privacy When Using AI to Navigate Your Cancer Care Decisions?” (Akerstein, Blikshteyn, and Power)

The information and opinions expressed on this website or platform, or during discussions and presentations (both verbal and written), are solely for educational purposes and are not intended as health care recommendations or medical advice by Cancer Patient Lab (CPL), its principals, presenters, participants, or representatives for any medical treatment, product, or course of action. You should always consult a doctor about your specific situation before pursuing any health care program, treatment, product, or other course of action that might affect your health.