By Allon Bloch
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Every day, millions of patients have the same questions about their health: "What is this?" "What else could it be?" and "How do I treat it?" The first two questions are primarily informational. The third demands immediate, actionable solutions.
Today, when faced with a new symptom, patients turn to consumer AI platforms like ChatGPT or Claude, call one of their health system’s many call centers or try to navigate their patient portal. Yet each of these avenues shares a gap in knowledge.
When it comes to getting high-quality treatments, AI and health systems are like oil and water. The consumer AI platforms offer rapid answers, but don’t have the patients’ medical records and struggle with the nuances of medicine. Furthermore, they can't book them an appointment and offer no pathway to their actual care team. Call centers lack the clinical context to know whether a patient needs to see a specialist tomorrow or in six months, leaving care navigation entirely on the patient. These options all lead to a triage dead end, and we see the fallout daily — from patients managing chronic conditions in urgent care to treating basic acute conditions, such as UTIs and sinusitis in the emergency room.
Read More on Community Forum
Rather than competing with standalone chatbots, health systems are meeting patients with a consumer-grade, conversational experience that is directly tied to their medical records and trusted care teams. The goal is to move beyond clinical information; it’s to give patients accurate information while seamlessly connecting them directly to care.
...
Why We Built PatientGPT
To give health systems a true front door, we needed to build clinical intelligence wherever a patient starts their health journey. We partner with leading health systems like Hartford HealthCare and Novant Health that leverage PatientGPT, our clinical AI platform that is fully integrated in the health system. It engages with patient populations across urgent, acute and chronic needs, grounds the clinical conversation in the medical record and efficiently routes the patient to the right doctor at the right time.
PatientGPT delivers the immediate responses that consumers expect from AI, but with a key differentiator: it doesn’t give a generic answer; it actually provides an answer just for you, based on your medical history. It isn’t built to diagnose patients or replace doctors; it’s built to assist them. Grounded in verified patient data, PatientGPT recognizes when a conversation turns clinical and activates agents specialized in routing patients to the best care. Directly within the conversation, the patient can book both online and in-person 24/7 care across primary and specialty care. Emergency red flags trigger immediate safety guidance or routing to the ER.
...
Proof in Practice
PatientGPT is generating real-world results in leading health systems across the country. Here are some examples from patients:
- A 56-year-old female wanted help for dry, patchy skin that had worsened over several weeks. PatientGPT offered practical, over-the-counter guidance (like shower habits, avoiding irritants, moisturizing strategies) and also connected the dots. Recognizing the patient's history of asthma and allergies, it raised the possibility of eczema and launched a focused intake covering the duration, location and texture of the patches. By the time the visit took place, the provider already had a structured chart to work from, resulting in smarter intake and faster care.
- A 75-year-old woman asked PatientGPT whether she should use ice or heat for a shoulder injury. PatientGPT flagged her osteopenia-related fall risk, took a detailed history and prompted the patient to do a mobility check. It pulled her prior baseline and surfaced the case for review. Guided by the clinician, it confirmed there was no prior injury and outlined next steps.
There is a common assumption that AI-driven tools are primarily accepted by younger, tech-native populations. Our data proves otherwise: patients across all age groups want a better, more responsive way to navigate their healthcare. Since launching in April 2026, the platform has helped tens of thousands of patients. Notably, the average user age is 60 years old, with patients over 65 representing some of the most active users.
Embedding Clinical AI in Care Delivery
This shift towards clinical AI is a fundamental step toward building a patient experience that delivers accurate, grounded information and connects people directly to care.
The efficiency gains aren't limited to patients. Before a patient ever sees a doctor, PatientGPT runs a dynamic intake, asking follow-up questions in real time based on what the patient says, not a static checklist. A patient reporting a headache might get asked about onset, duration, vision changes or medication history, with each question informed by their last answer. That conversation is distilled into a Perfect Note waiting for the doctor before the visit even starts. History, symptoms and all relevant context are organized, not buried in a transcript. This allows the clinician to walk in already knowing what matters to the patient, instead of spending the first few minutes of the visit getting oriented.
A conversational interface is only the surface of this shift. Moving beyond clinical Q&A requires two complex systems that we’ve actively integrated into our platform: an orchestration layer that securely routes data and coordinates specialized AI agents, and safety guardrails that ensure every response is thoroughly safeguarded and grounded in physician oversight.
Building one system, one record and one permanent digital home for your health is a major initiative that allows health systems to provide an end-to-end way to manage millions of outpatients. As health systems continue to bridge consumer convenience with real clinical integration, we move closer to medicine’s ultimate goal: providing accurate, reliable care exactly when and where a patient needs it.
Allon Bloch is a member of the Newsweek CEO Circle, an invite-only executive community of subscribers.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines