An AI visit-prep tool helped in a study, not a diagnosis
An AI chat may help patients get ready for a doctor visit. In a test with random groups, doctors and patients gave the guided tool better marks than a basic version of the same AI. The two results come from different sets of answers. The study does not show better diagnoses or lasting health gains.
What the source reports
Tan and colleagues report a randomized study in a Google Health app. With consent, 802 adults held 866 health conversations. One group used a structured AI tool for preparing a visit. The comparison group used a basic version of the same model. Among 272 completed sessions, clinicians judged preparation complete in 67.2% with the guided tool, versus 50.6% with the basic version. Among 460 surveys after use, 73.8% of patients in the guided group said they felt ready, versus 57.0% in the comparison group. Those are two different measures with different response counts; the clinician and patient ratings did not move together. The abstract does not establish a diagnosis or a lasting health benefit.
Original source
- Title
- A prospective randomized study of patient-centered AI for clinical visit preparation
- Author
- Xincheng Tan, Matthew Thompson, Xiang Ji, Angelica Willis, Will Vaughan, Roma Ruparel, Michael A. Sanchez, Sean Chang, Joseph Xu, Bhavna Daryani, Preeti Singh, Pinal Bavishi, Kejia Chen, Fan Zhang, Priya Gupta, Ernest Lim, Christina Chen, Bob Lou, Dimitrios Antos, Zach Wasson, Ray Luo, Fadi Yousif, Florence Thng, Mark Malhotra, Joseph Breda, Daniel McDuff, Kavi Goel, Katherine Chou, Dale R. Webster, Avinatan Hassidim, Yossi Matias, Po-Hsuan Cameron Chen, Yun Liu, Mike Schaekermann, Quang Duong, Jackie M. Barr
- Publication
- arXiv cs.HC
- Date
- Monday, November 2, 2026