Before your visit

Prompts to ask an AI before your doctor visit

Name: Prompts to ask an AI before your doctor visit | GPT Medicine
Creator: Harvey Castro, MD, MBA

Six prompts I would want my own patients to use before a visit. They help you show up organized, with better questions. Replace the words in [brackets] with general details only.

Stop: is this an emergency?

Chest pain, stroke signs, trouble breathing, severe bleeding or thoughts of harming yourself: call 911 or call or text 988. Do not use AI first.

Safe-use rules

Never paste your name, date of birth, address, insurance or record numbers. Replace them with words like [my age] or [my medicine].
An AI is not your doctor. Use the answer to prepare questions, not to decide on treatment.
If anything could be an emergency, stop and call 911. Do not wait for an AI answer.
Never start, stop or change a medicine because of an AI answer. Ask your clinician or pharmacist.
Consumer AI tools are generally not covered by HIPAA. The AI company receives whatever you type, and its privacy policy applies.
Ask the AI to say what it is unsure about, and check important points with your clinician.
Bring the questions to your visit, and write down what your doctor says.

1. Prepare my questions

Help me prepare for a doctor visit about [symptom or condition, no personal details]. List 5 questions I should ask, what information my doctor will likely want from me, and which warning signs mean I should not wait for the visit and should get care now. You are not my doctor, so do not diagnose me.

2. Summarize my notes for the doctor

Turn my notes into a short summary I can hand my doctor: [paste notes without names, dates of birth, addresses or ID numbers]. Keep my own words, list my symptoms in the order they started, and note what makes them better or worse.

3. Questions about my medicines

I take these medicines: [list names and doses]. What questions should I ask my doctor or pharmacist about side effects and interactions? Do not tell me to start, stop or change any medicine.

4. Understand a test result

Explain this test result in plain language: [test name and result, no personal details]. What does it usually measure, and what questions should I ask my doctor about it? Tell me what you are unsure about.

5. Understand a diagnosis

My doctor mentioned [diagnosis]. Explain it at an 8th-grade reading level, list the questions patients most often ask about it, and tell me what reliable sources I could check, without inventing links or studies.

6. Make a symptom diary

Make me a simple symptom diary for the week before my visit: date, time, what I felt, how strong from 1 to 10, what I was doing, and what helped. Keep it to one page I can print.

One more step before the visit: put your allergies, medicines and an emergency contact on your phone's lock screen with a free QR Medic medical ID. Want a custom prompt instead? Use my safe prompt builder.

Education only, not medical advice. Nothing you type on this page is saved or sent.

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Written and medically reviewed by Harvey Castro, MD, MBA, board-certified emergency physician. Last reviewed October 25, 2026.

About the author.

Board-certified emergency physician, still practicing
Five TEDx talks
Author of more than 45 books (Wiley, Routledge, KDP)
As seen on NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
Writing on KevinMD and Substack
Keynotes at HIMSS Europe and HIMSS AI