AI for patients

Symptom apps, wearables, mental health assistants. What is worth installing, what is worth ignoring, and what is not attempted in an emergency.

Consumer tools are the most numerous and the least regulated. A watch that estimates blood oxygen, an app that asks about symptoms and a conversational assistant look alike in an app store, yet sit in completely different regimes: medical device, general wellness product, digital service with no medical qualification.

Real usefulness is smaller than the promise and larger than blanket scepticism suggests. A symptom questionnaire helps you arrive at an appointment with your questions in order. A wearable shows trends over weeks, not diagnoses in a single night. A chatbot lowers the barrier to asking for help — provided it has a clear crisis protocol.

One rule settles most situations: these tools are good at signposting and at monitoring, weak in emergencies and in atypical cases. The more acute and the less typical the situation, the more you need a human.

  • For chest pain, breathlessness, bleeding, seizures, weakness on one side of the body or slurred speech: the emergency number, not an app.
  • Use the tool to prepare questions for a clinician, not to replace the appointment.
  • Read what happens to your data before you type the first symptom.
  • Look at trends over weeks, not a single reading, and never change treatment because of an app.

Guides for patients and families

Information for understanding and orientation. It does not replace medical care. In an emergency, call 112.