About this episode

Melissa Reynolds discusses her experience using AI to manage her health and advocate for herself in a medical setting.

Using AI to track symptoms, weigh medication options, and advocate. Not a cure, a toolkit. An honest, careful path without handing over the wheel. Summary Health Hats reviewed Melissa Reynolds’ book on pregnancy in 2019, and they bonded over the fact that a man had blurbed it. Now she’s on to something new: she’s been figuring out how to use AI to manage a body that’s been hard to live in for two decades. The turning point came in a diagnostic unit, alone in the dark with no idea what would happen next. She opened Claude and asked what the odds were. The answer was enough to let her breathe. What follows is one of the more grounded conversations you’ll hear about patients and AI. She tracks her symptoms in a spreadsheet and asks AI to surface what she’s missing, which is how she learned that her fatigue flares two days before her gut does. She brings research to her GP, who welcomes it and smiles. She nods at the gastroenterologist, who warns her off “that ChatGPT thing.” She’s careful about the politics, careful about the safeguards, and clear that this is for driving your own care, not replacing your clinicians. Her advice for anyone…

People in this episode

Host: Danny van Leeuwen

Guest: Melissa Reynolds

Topics covered

• AI in healthcare
• patient advocacy
• symptom tracking
• mental health
• medication management

Keywords

• AI
• health management
• symptoms
• patient care
• advocacy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: ChatGPT, Health Hats

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