By Marcus Dillavou, MsEng
Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Yunara Life
Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming part of healthcare. Patients are increasingly encountering AI-powered symptom checkers, health coaches, medical scribes, personalized wellness platforms, and preventive health tools that promise more individualized recommendations and insights.
Many of these technologies have the potential to improve the patient experience. They can help identify patterns, organize complex information, and provide guidance that feels more personalized than traditional one-size-fits-all approaches.
At the same time, these tools often require access to highly personal information. As patients, we should understand what we are sharing, who has access to it, and how it is being used.
When evaluating any healthcare company that uses artificial intelligence, I believe there are several questions worth asking.
The first is whether the company clearly explains how your information is used. Privacy policies are often lengthy and difficult to read, but patients should still be able to understand, in plain language, what data is being collected and why. If a company cannot explain that clearly, it is reasonable to ask more questions.
Patients should also understand whether their information may be used to train artificial intelligence systems. Some companies use patient data to improve their models over time, while others maintain strict boundaries around how personal information is used. Neither approach is inherently right or wrong, but transparency matters.
It is also worth understanding who can access your information. In healthcare, there is often an assumption that health data remains exclusively between a patient and a clinician. Modern technology platforms can involve additional parties, including software vendors, cloud infrastructure providers, and third-party service partners. Patients should feel comfortable asking how access is controlled and what safeguards are in place.
Security practices deserve attention as well. No system can promise perfect security, but healthcare organizations should be able to describe how they protect sensitive information. Encryption, access controls, audit logs, and ongoing security monitoring are no longer optional. They are foundational requirements.
Another question that is becoming increasingly important is whether patients can control or delete their information. As AI systems become more sophisticated, people should understand what choices they have regarding their data and whether those choices can be exercised easily.
What often surprises people is that some of the largest privacy risks may not come from healthcare organizations at all. Many consumers voluntarily share extensive health-related information through mobile applications, wearable devices, social media platforms, and online communities without fully understanding how that information may be stored, analyzed, or shared in the future.
The healthcare industry is entering an exciting period of innovation. Artificial intelligence has the potential to make healthcare more proactive, more personalized, and more accessible. As these technologies become more common, patients should not feel pressured to choose between benefiting from innovation and protecting their privacy.
The organizations that earn trust over the long term will be the ones that communicate clearly, operate transparently, and treat patient information with the same care they would want for their own families. Patients deserve nothing less.
Questions Worth Asking Any AI Healthcare Company
- What information are you collecting about me?
- Why are you collecting it?
- Is my data used to train AI models?
- Who can access my information?
- How is my data protected?
- Can I delete my information if I choose to leave?
- Do you sell or share my data with third parties?
- How do you ensure AI recommendations remain accurate and clinically appropriate?
Additional Resources
For readers interested in learning more about privacy, healthcare data, and artificial intelligence, the following resources provide helpful information:
- HIPAA Privacy Rule Overview (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services) A practical overview of how health information is protected and your rights as a patient.
- American Medical Association: Augmented Intelligence in Healthcare Resources and perspectives on the responsible use of AI in clinical care.