Healthcare can be difficult to navigate even for people who are proactive about their health and engaged in their care. Medical terminology is unfamiliar. Appointments are often brief. Patients may leave with several instructions, new medications, follow-up plans and a stack of information to sort through later.

That is where health literacy comes in.

Health literacy is not simply about reading level, and it is certainly not about how smart a patient is. It is about whether health information is presented clearly enough for people to understand it, use it and make informed decisions. Confusion is not always a patient problem. Sometimes it is a communication problem.

Artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT can help. But they are most useful when we treat them as communication tools—not as healthcare professionals.

Five Ways Consumers Can Use AI More Effectively and Safely

  1. Ask AI to translate medical language into plain language.

    2. If you encounter an unfamiliar term in a medical report, test result or patient-education handout, AI can often explain it in more understandable language. You might ask, “Explain this term as if you were talking to someone without a medical background.”

    That can be very helpful. But easier to read does not always mean complete or clinically accurate.

    In research my colleagues and I conducted on patient education materials, AI provided suggested revisions that improved readability of patient materials by approximately four grade levels. At the same time, clinically important information was sometimes dropped or made less specific. The lesson we learned: simplify, then verify.

  2. Use AI to prepare for a healthcare appointment.

    3. Before an appointment, you can give AI a general description of what you want to discuss and ask it to help you create a short list of questions.

    For example: “I have been having persistent hoarseness. What questions should I be prepared to ask my healthcare provider?”

    The value here is preparation. AI can help organize your thinking so that the limited time you have with a clinician is more productive. It should not tell you what your diagnosis is before you walk through the door.

  3. Use it to organize information after a visit.

    4. Healthcare visits can generate a lot of information at once. AI can help turn notes or non-sensitive instructions into a checklist, organize questions for follow-up, or explain the difference between several terms your clinician used.

    The goal is not to replace what your clinician told you. It is to make that information easier to use.

    Good health communication should be not only readable, but also understandable and actionable. In other words: Do you understand the main message, and do you know what you are supposed to do next?

  4. Ask AI to help you evaluate health information—not simply accept it.

    5. One of the best questions you can ask AI is not “Is this true?” but “How can I verify this?”

    Ask where the information comes from. Ask whether it is current. Ask what reputable organizations or professional sources say about the same topic. Then check those sources yourself.

    AI can sound remarkably confident even when an answer is incomplete or wrong. Confidence is not evidence.

  5. Know when to stop asking AI and start asking a healthcare professional.

    6. This may be the most important tip of all.

    AI can help you understand terminology, prepare questions, organize information and locate sources worth investigating. It should not independently diagnose symptoms, decide whether you are experiencing an emergency, tell you to start or stop a medication, change a dosage or create an individualized treatment plan.

    A useful rule is this: The greater the potential consequence of being wrong, the less you should rely on AI alone.

AI will almost certainly become a larger part of how consumers find and use health information. That can be a good thing. But the goal should not be to hand our health decisions over to technology. The goal should be to use technology to help us become better informed, better prepared and better able to participate in conversations about our own care.

Clear communication is good care. AI can help us get there—but human judgment still matters.