Every month, millions of people turn to AI chat tools with questions about their health. A recent General Medicine survey shows that more than half of adults in the United States now use AI regularly for health related questions, with usage climbing to nearly three quarters among those aged 18 to 49. This shift is not driven by a belief that AI knows more than doctors. Instead, people are drawn to AI because it is always available, never hurried, willing to ask follow up questions, and able to explain things in simple language. These are qualities that the current healthcare system struggles to deliver consistently at scale.
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Despite this growing reliance on AI, most of these conversations exist in isolation. They are not connected to medical records or shared with clinicians who can turn insights into action. As a result, meaningful discussions about symptoms, patterns, and concerns often stop short of influencing care decisions.
General Medicine is addressing this gap. Built by the team behind PillPack and Amazon Health, the company helps people explore their health history while having thoughtful conversations about what they are experiencing. General Medicine securely gathers medical records from as many providers and as far back as possible. Customers can then use AI powered chat to ask questions, flag concerns, and describe changes in their health using everyday language without time limits. The AI asks clarifying questions, offers general educational context, and converts the conversation into a structured summary that a doctor reviews ahead of an appointment. This allows visits to begin with a shared understanding of the full story, so time with the clinician can focus on decisions and next steps such as medications, lab work, imaging, or referrals.
Elliot Cohen, cofounder of General Medicine, explained that as more people started using AI for health questions, it became clear that AI was filling a basic human need that healthcare often cannot meet. He noted that people want space to talk through their concerns and ask as many questions as needed. The challenge, he said, has always been that healthcare lacked a way to turn those long conversations into information clinicians could use. According to Cohen, AI makes it possible to solve this problem at scale and helps create richer relationships when both patients and doctors start from the same understanding.
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Before opening the platform to customers, General Medicine worked closely with physicians across more than 35 medical specialties. These clinicians helped shape how patient language is translated into medically relevant insights so that the information fits naturally into clinical workflows.
Lauralee Yalden, MD, FAAFP, a clinician with General Medicine, shared that the AI tools have changed how she practices medicine. She described the experience as unusually seamless and said the system puts critical information at her fingertips during visits. This has allowed her to manage more complex cases because the details she needs are easy to access and clearly organized.
Customers now use the same tools their clinicians rely on. Instead of repeating their story with every new provider, they begin with a comprehensive view of their health history that has already been collected and interpreted. They can return at any time, day or night, to ask questions, note changes, or document new concerns as they arise.
Pallabi Sanyal Dey, MD, FHM, Medical Director at General Medicine, said that patients often become more engaged when they can interact with their health history in a meaningful way. She shared that even as a physician, reviewing her own records through the platform revealed new insights and helped her better visualize her care. She added that this shared context helps doctors quickly understand what matters most to the patient from the start of a visit.
Ashwin Muralidharan, cofounder and CEO of General Medicine, emphasized that patients already have valuable insights about their own bodies because they live with them every day. He explained that the real issue is not a lack of insight, but the absence of systems that capture and carry those insights between visits. By improving what happens before and between appointments, he said, General Medicine is changing what is possible during the time patients spend with their doctors.
All medical decisions on the platform, including diagnoses, prescriptions, lab orders, and referrals, are made by licensed clinicians. General Medicine continuously reviews AI outputs to ensure safety, accuracy, and relevance. All customer health information is handled in accordance with applicable privacy and security standards, including HIPAA.
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