7 ms·

I personally don’t care who has access to my health data, but I understand those who might. Either way, I’m excited for some actual innovation in the personal

• MattDaEskimo 9mo ago
  I'm sorry, but seriously? How could you not care who has your health data? I think the more plausible comment is "I've been protected my whole life by health data privacy laws that I have no idea what the other side looks like". Quite frankly, this is even worse as it can and will override doctors orders and feed into people's delusions as an "expert".
  • roger_ 9mo ago
    I’d rather have all my health data be used in a way that can actually help me, even with a risk of a breach or misuse, than having it in a folder somewhere doing nothing.
    • SiempreViernes 9mo ago
      You're supposed to share it with a doctor you trust, if nobody qualified asked for it it's probably because it's no longer relevant.
      • roger_ 9mo ago
        I’ve had mixed experiences with doctors. Often times they’re glancing at my chart for two minutes before an appointment and that’s the extent of their concern for me. I’ve also lived in places where I don’t have a choice in doctor.
    • ThatMedicIsASpy 9mo ago
      It can also help you in not getting a job because your health data says you'll be sick in 6 months.
      • squeaky-clean 9mo ago
        It would be absolutely amazing if any sort of tech could say that I'm going to have a serious health problem 6 months ahead of time.
        • nprateem 9mo ago
          How do you think insurance premiums are calculated?
          • simianwords 9mo ago
            How are they calculated? Based on what data? Your google searches? If they don't use goolge search history, why would they use chatgpt history?
            • rainonmoon 9mo ago
              Yeah man, when would technology ever be abused to monitor health data. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/health/period-tracking-apps-outraged-new-35271403 https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/health/period-tracking-apps-ou...
          • sib 9mo ago
            In general, health insurance companies (at least in the US) are pretty much prevented from using any health data to set premiums. In fact, many US states prevent insurers from charge smokers higher premiums. (Life insurance companies are different.)
      • simianwords 9mo ago
        How do you think that can happen realistically? Like seriously can you explain clearly how the data from ChatGPT gets to your employer?
  • dmmartins 9mo ago
    I don't care either. Why should I? I go to the doctor once a year and it's always the same. Not much to do with that data
    • dingnuts 9mo ago
      [dead]
    • lionkor 9mo ago
      Your health data could be used in the future, when technology is more advanced, to infer things about you that we don't even know about, and target you or your family for it.
      • 9x39 9mo ago
        Health data could also be used now to spot trends and problems that an assembly-line health system doesn't optimize for. I think in the US, you get out of the system what you put into it - specific queries and concerns with as much background as you can muster for your doctor. You have to own the initiative to get your reactive medical provider to help. Using your own AI subscription to analyze your own data seems like immense ROI versus a distant theoretical risk.
      • tokioyoyo 9mo ago
        It feels like everyone is ignoring the major part of the other side’s argument. Sure, sharing the health data can be used against you in the future, but it can be used to help you right now as well. Anyone with any sort of pain in the past will try any available method to get rid of it. And that’s fair when those methods, even with 50% success rate, are useful.
  • ipdashc 9mo ago
    I'm in the same boat as them, I honestly wouldn't care that much if all my health data got leaked. Not saying I'm "correct" about this (I've read the rest of the thread), just saying they're not alone. It's always been interesting to me how religiously people manage to care about health data privacy, while not caring at all if the NSA can scan all their messages, track their location, etc. The latter is vastly more important to me. (Yes, these are different groups of people, but on a societal/policy level it still feels like we prioritize health privacy oddly more so than other sorts of privacy.)
  • simianwords 9mo ago
    What is it with you people and privacy? Sure it is a minor problem but to be _this_ affected by it? Your hospitals already have your data. Google probably has your data that you have google searched. What's the worst that can happen with OpenAI having your health data? Vs the best case? You all are no different from AI doomers who claim AI will take over the world.. really nonsensical predictions giving undue weight to the worst possible outcomes.
    • DavidPiper 9mo ago
      > What is it with you people and privacy? There are no doubt many here that might wish they had as consequence-free a life as this question suggests you have had thus far. I'm happy for you, truly, but there are entire libraries written in answer to that question.
• rightbyte 9mo ago
  Are you giving your vitals to Sam Altman just like that? What instrument?
  • roger_ 9mo ago
    Yes, if it will help me and others. Again, I understand those who disagree.
    • midldei 9mo ago
      But this is a 'cart before the horse' situation. What evidence do you have that providing your health information to this company will help you or anyone (other than those with financial interest in the company)? There is a very real, near definite, chance that giving your, and others', health data to this company will hurt you and others. Will you still hold this, "I personally don’t care who has access to my health data", position?
      • cyberpunk 9mo ago
        I’m definitely a privacy fist person, but can you explain how health data could hurt you, besides obvious things like being discriminated against for insurance if you have a drug habit or whatever. Like, i’m a fitness conscious 30 something white male, what risk is there of my appendix operation being common knowledge or that i need more iron or something?
        • idiotsecant 9mo ago
          Is your point 'I have no major health conditions, so nobody could be hurt by releasing health data'? If so, I don't think I need to point out the gap in this logic.
          • cyberpunk 9mo ago
            Actually you maybe do. I am extremely privacy conscious; so i’m on your side on this one but health data is a bit different from handing over all your email and purchase information to google — in that scenario the danger is that the political or religious or whatever attributes i may have could be exposed to a future regime who considers what is acceptable today to no longer be so, uses them to profile and … whatever me, right? What actual danger is there from a government or a us tech company having my blood work details when i actually have nothing to hide like drug abuse or alcohol etc? health data seems much less risky than my political views, religion, sexuality, minor crimes committed and so on.
• websiteapi 9mo ago
  If an insight led you or a family member to being misdiagnosed and crippled would you just say it’s their or your own fault? If it were a doctor would you have the same opinion?
  • roger_ 9mo ago
    I understand enough about these systems to know they’re not perfect but I agree some people might be misled. But I don’t know if I should be denied access because of those people.
    • piva00 9mo ago
      > But I don’t know if I should be denied access because of those people. That's the majority of people though, if you really think that I assume you wouldn't have a problem with needing to be licenced to have this kind of access, right?
      • roger_ 9mo ago
        If they pepper it with warnings and add safe guards, then I'm fine. I think they can design it to minimize misinformation or at least blind trust.
        • piva00 9mo ago
          People are very good at ignoring warnings, I see it all the time. There's no way to design it to minimise misinformation, the "ground truth" problem of LLM alignment is still unsolved. The only system we currently have to allow people to verify they know what they are doing is through licencing: you go to training, you are tested that you understand the training, and you are allowed to do the dangerous thing. Are you ok with needing this to be able to access a potentially dangerous tool for the untrained?
          • vidarh 9mo ago
            There is no way to stop this at this point. Local and/or open models are capable enough that there is just a short window before attempts at restricting this kind of thing will just lead to a proliferation of services outside the reach of whichever jurisdiction decides to regulate this. If you want working regulation for this, it will need to focus on warnings and damage mitigation, not denying access.
• nozzlegear 9mo ago
  > Recently I snapped a photo of an obscure instrument screen after taking a test and was able to get more useful information than what my doctor eventually provided (“nothing to worry about”, etc.) ChatGPT was able to reference papers and do data analysis which was pretty amazing, right from my phone (e.g fitting my data to a model from a paper and spitting out a plot). If you don't mind sharing, what kind of useful information is ChatGPT giving you based off of a photo that your doctor didn't give you? Could you have asked the doctor about the data on the instrument and gotten the same info? I'm mildly interested in this kind of thing, but I have a severe health anxiety and do not need a walking hypochondria-sycophant in my pocket. My system prompts tell the LLMs not to give me medical advice or indulge in diagnosis roulette.
  • roger_ 9mo ago
    In one case it was a urinary flow test (uroflowmetry). The results go to a lab and then the doctor gets the summary. Was able to diagnose the issue, prevalence, etc. and educate myself about treatment and risks before seeing a doctor. Papers gave me distributions of flow by age, sex, etc. so I knew it was out of range. In another case I uploaded a CSV of CGM data, analyzed it and identified trends (e.g. Saturday morning blood sugar spikes). All in five minutes on my phone.
• moralestapia 9mo ago
  >23andme was mostly useless. 23andme was massively successful in their mission. Sidenote: their mission was not about helping you understand your genomic information.
  • Bombthecat 9mo ago
    Yeah, their mission was to make money and collect data for AI training and other usages.
• nprateem 9mo ago
  Unless you're a doctor you don't know what it's made up though. That's the trouble with AI. You can only be impressed if you know a subject well enough to know it's not just bullshitting like usual.
  • halapro 9mo ago
    AI-guided self-medication is certainly problematic. Rubber-ducking your symptoms for free for as long as you need and then asking a doctor for their 2-minute opinion is IMHO the best way to go about healthcare in 2026. I live in a place where I can get anything related to healthcare and even surgery within the same day at an affordable price, and even here I've wasted days going to various specialists who just tried to give me useless meds. Imagine if one lives in a place where you need an appointment 3 months in advance, you most certainly will benefit from going there showing your last ChatGPT summary.
    • JSR_FDED 9mo ago
      Your healthcare situation seems pretty darn good. What country is this?
      • halapro 9mo ago
        Thailand is my go-to for healthcare in private hospitals. I heard good things about Singapore too. Taiwan's public hospitals were great too, albeit not as flashy.
  • simianwords 9mo ago
    This is exaggerated. AI is accurate enough that our sniff tests will get us far. ChatGPT just don't hallucinate all that often. You can have the same problem with doctors who don't give you even 5 minutes of your time and who don't have time to read through all your medical history.
• csomar 9mo ago
  > I personally don’t care who has access to my health data There's a reason this data is heavily regulated. It's deeply intimate and gives others enormous leverage over you. This is also why the medical industry can charge premium rates while often providing poor service. Something as simple as knowing whether you need insulin to survive might seem harmless, but it creates an asymmetric power dynamic that can be exploited. And we know these companies will absolutely use this data to extract every possible gain.
  • HPsquared 9mo ago
    The medical industry doesn't use your medical data to overcharge for insulin. That's more a question of your financial and insurance data.
• h1fra 9mo ago
  I was going to be mad at this, but I remember our doctors are already using it without our consent
  • antiframe 9mo ago
    Your doctor is bound by HIPAA, you could consider doing something about it. OpenAI may not be bound by HIPAA so your available recourse is lesser.
    • h1fra 9mo ago
      My doctor is in the EU, and none of them care, it's been documented heavily in the past months.