About 15,000 US doctors and assistants are using an AI feature in MyChart, a ubiquitous communications platform in US hospitals, to draft replies to patients
Overwhelmed by queries, physicians are turning to artificial intelligence to correspond with patients. Many have no clue that the replies are software-generated.
Context & Ripple Effects
Earlier coverage captured hospital tests of GPT-3 for online patient queries and clinicians using ChatGPT to make patient communications more empathetic. MyChart moves that use case from stand-alone experimentation into a widely used hospital communications channel.
The significance is distribution: AI drafting is being used by roughly 15,000 doctors and assistants where patient messaging already happens, rather than requiring clinicians to switch to a separate tool.
First-order effects
- Doctors and assistants using MyChart can draft replies to incoming patient messages with AI, potentially reducing the writing burden created by high query volumes.
- Patients may receive AI-drafted correspondence without knowing software contributed to the response, making clinician review and communication practices immediately consequential.
Second-order effects
- Hospitals deploying AI in messaging will need to determine how drafts are reviewed and whether patients are told when software assists, because the tool operates in a patient-facing channel.
- Clinical-AI vendors have a stronger incentive to embed communication features in established workflows, alongside the administrative automation seen in AI tools used to automate clinical notes.
Third-order effects
- If adoption holds, patient messaging may become a standard AI-assisted administrative workflow, shifting value toward platforms that control the clinician’s daily communication surface.
- The pattern points to a broader need for healthcare organizations to distinguish AI that prepares work from AI that independently communicates with patients; how they set that boundary remains unsettled.
The trend: Healthcare AI is moving from discrete clinician tools into workflow-native systems that draft and organize routine patient-facing work.