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ChatGPT Health

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151–160 of 677 posts

Re: ChatGPT Health

#151
post #117

I understand all the chatter about LLMs hallucinating, or making assumptions, or not being able to understand or provide the more human/emotional element of health care. But the question I ask myself is: is this better than the alternative? if I wasn't asking ChatGPT, where would I go to get help? The answers I can anticipate are: questionably trustworthy web content; an overconfident friend who may have read questio…

> if I wasn't asking ChatGPT, where would I go to get help? Is this serious question? Can't you call/visit doctor?

It depends on where you live and what the issue is.

Where I live, doctors are only good for life threatening stuff - the things you probably wouldn't be asking ChatGPT anyway. But for general health, you either:

1. Have to book in advance, wait, and during the visit doctor just says that it's not a big deal, because they really don't have time or capacity for this.

2. You go private, doctor goes on a wild hunt with you, you spend a ton of time and money, and then 3 months later you get the answer ChatGPT could have told you in a few minuites for $20/mo (and probably with better backed, more recent research).

If anything, the only time ChatGPT answers wrong on health related matters is when it tries to be careful and omits details because "be advised, I'm not a doctor, I can't give you this information" bullshit.

Re: ChatGPT Health

#152
post #81
post #65

I’m kind of torn on this. From one side, I can’t seem to trust doctors any more. I recently had a tooth removed (by the advice of two different doctors), in a claim that it will resolve my pain, which it did not, and now 3 different doctors don’t know what’s causing my pain. Most doctor advice boil down to drink some water and take a painkiller, while glancing for 15 seconds at my medical history before they dedicate…

Unfortunately doctors are fallible humans, but also the infallible gatekeepers of pharmaceuticals and surgeries. Unfortunately I've become relatively knowledgeable about a condition I have myself, to the extent where I'll ofyen have much more subject knowledge than a given nonspecialist doctor. All the same they have to make on-the-spot decisions about me that will have serious consequences for both of us, in between…

Part of being a fallible human is recognizing when you're not sure of something.

Re: ChatGPT Health

#153
post #101
post #65

I’m kind of torn on this. From one side, I can’t seem to trust doctors any more. I recently had a tooth removed (by the advice of two different doctors), in a claim that it will resolve my pain, which it did not, and now 3 different doctors don’t know what’s causing my pain. Most doctor advice boil down to drink some water and take a painkiller, while glancing for 15 seconds at my medical history before they dedicate…

> Most doctor advice boil down to drink some water and take a painkiller Forgive my brusqueness here, but this could only be written by someone who has not yet been seriously ill.

You've clearly touched the problem with healthcare in general though. If it's not life threatening, it's not taken seriously.

There are a lot of health related issues humans can experience that affect their lives negatively that are not life threatening.

I'm gonna give you a good example: I suffer from mild skin related issues for as long as I can remember. It's not a big deal, but I want my skin to be in better condition. I went through tens of doctors and they all did essentially some variation of tylenol equivalent for skin treatment. With AI, I've been able to identify the core problems that every licensed professional overlooked.

Re: ChatGPT Health

#154
post #55
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand enough about these systems to know they’re not perfect but I agree some people might be misled. But I don’t know if I should be denied access because of those people.

> But I don’t know if I should be denied access because of those people. That's the majority of people though, if you really think that I assume you wouldn't have a problem with needing to be licenced to have this kind of access, right?

Depends. If you're talking about a free online test I can take to prove I have basic critical thinking skills, maybe, but that's still a slippery slope. As a legal adult with the right to consent to all sorts of things, I shouldn't have to prove my competence to someone else's satisfaction before I'm allowed autonomy to make my own personal decisions.

If what you're suggesting is a license that would cost money and/or a non-trivial amount of time to obtain, it's a nonstarter. That's how you create an unregulated black market and cause more harm than leaving the situation alone would have. See: the wars on drugs, prostitutes, and alcohol.

Re: ChatGPT Health

#155
post #118
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if I wasn't asking ChatGPT, where would I go to get help? Is this serious question? Can't you call/visit doctor?

I'm Australian, but from what I understand from my friends in America, no. They only go when it's urgent/very worrying.

I took an at home flu test, messaged my doctor at no cost telling him I’d tested positive (he didn’t even ask for a picture) and paid $25 from a tax free the same day. My doctor is part of a large hospital system too, he didn’t want me to come in just sent the rx.

Re: ChatGPT Health

#156
My uncle had an issue with his balance and slurred speech. Doctors claimed dementia and sent him home. It kept becoming worse and worse. Then one day I entered the symptoms in ChatGPT (or was it Gemini?) and asked it for the top 3 hypotheses. The first one was related to dementia. The second was something else (I forget the long name). I took all 3 to his primary care doc who had kept ignoring the problem, and asked her to try the other 2 hypotheses. She hesitantly agreed to explore the second one, and referred him to a specialist in that area. And guess what? It was the second one! They did some surgery and now he's fine as a fiddle.

Re: ChatGPT Health

#157
At first I was reading this like 'oh boy here we go, a marketing ploy by ChatGPT when Gemini 3 does the same thing better', but the integration with data streams and specialized memory is interesting.

One thing I've noticed in healthcare is for the rich it is preventative but for everyone else it is reactive. For the rich everything is an option (homeopathics/alternatives), for everyone else it is straight to generic pharma drugs.

AI has the potential to bring these to the masses and I think for those who care, it will bring a concierge style experience.

Re: ChatGPT Health

#158

I understand all the chatter about LLMs hallucinating, or making assumptions, or not being able to understand or provide the more human/emotional element of health care. But the question I ask myself is: is this better than the alternative? if I wasn't asking ChatGPT, where would I go to get help? The answers I can anticipate are: questionably trustworthy web content; an overconfident friend who may have read questio…

> if I wasn't asking ChatGPT, where would I go to get help?

To an MD?

Re: ChatGPT Health

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is your point 'I have no major health conditions, so nobody could be hurt by releasing health data'? If so, I don't think I need to point out the gap in this logic.

Actually you maybe do. I am extremely privacy conscious; so i’m on your side on this one but health data is a bit different from handing over all your email and purchase information to google — in that scenario the danger is that the political or religious or whatever attributes i may have could be exposed to a future regime who considers what is acceptable today to no longer be so, uses them to profile and … whateve…

When your health data can say you are trans, and the government decides to persecute you, then yes, it important to maintain privacy.

Re: ChatGPT Health

#160
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Because I was thinking it was going to be tragic.

It could be interesting, the medical industry is fine with everyone being deficient in everything. And then people miraculously get ill?

The tinfoil hat seems to be too tight around your head
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