Health · News · 🇺🇸 United States
Patients take test results to a chatbot before the doctor, and the errors are worrying
In the US, doctors report patients who stopped medication or grew distrustful of vaccines after wrong AI answers.
- Tools
- ChatGPT
- Country
- 🇺🇸 United States
- Report date
- August 6, 2026
- Verified on
- October 24, 2026
What they did
Patients receive lab reports online and ask chatbots to interpret them before the appointment. Doctors interviewed by the WSJ describe cases of wrong conclusions, such as confusing types of meniscus injury.
How it went
According to a cited KFF survey, about a third of American adults used chatbots for health questions in the past year, and 42% of those who asked about physical health did not see a doctor afterward.
Good to know
Don't stop or change medication because of an AI answer. Lab reports are sensitive data (LGPD): remove your name and documents before pasting.
The prompt
I received this test result [paste without personal data]. Explain each out-of-range item in plain language, tell me what can NOT be concluded from this alone, and list questions to bring to the [specialist].
Replace what is in [brackets]. Prompt written by us from the account, not a literal copy of the source. Do not paste other people’s personal data (privacy laws such as LGPD and GDPR apply).
Summary in our own words. Results as stated in the original account; we have not tested or audited them. Read the source ↗ Found a mistake?
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