I Used AI for My Chronic Illness for a Year. Here's What Went Wrong.

The Agentic Patient is here — and most healthcare systems don't have a plan for it. In this special reverse-role episode of Faces of Digital Health, Eric Sutherland interviews host Tjaša Zajc about what a year of using AI through her own chronic illness has actually taught her about patients, doctors, and the future of healthcare AI. 200 million people will ask ChatGPT a health question this week. The question is no longer whether patients will use AI to navigate their care — it's how to help them do it well, without harm, and in productive partnership with their clinicians. In this episode: Why "patients know best" breaks down for chronic patients The three archetypes AI is creating: minimizers, cyberchondriacs, and informed collaborators What happens when doctors dismiss patients who use AI A two-model verification method for cross-checking medical AI advice Why "digital literacy" is the wrong name for the most important skill in modern healthcare Two prompts that genuinely change what AI gives you back What health ministries should actually do — and why we shouldn't offload patient AI education to doctors ⏱ CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro & reverse-role experiment 01:00 Eric Sutherland: "a data guy with personality" 01:36 A year as a chronic patient using AI 02:50 Same prompt, different LLMs — the trust problem 04:30 How The Agentic Patient series was born 06:00 Three patient archetypes 09:00 When doctors dismiss AI, patients start hiding 12:30 Dale Atkinson, HIMSS Europe, and data outside the clinic 13:30 200M weekly ChatGPT health queries — who's accountable? 15:30 The two-model cross-verification method 17:00 Making 7-minute appointments work with AI 19:30 Finland's Elements of AI — a model for healthcare 22:00 Why chronic patients may not know best 24:30 Five minutes with a health minister 27:00 Two prompts that change AI outputs 30:00 The agentic patient is a survivor, not a tech enthusiast 🎙 ABOUT THE AGENTIC PATIENT The Agentic Patient is a series under Faces of Digital Health exploring how patients and clinicians are actually using AI in healthcare — the wins, the harms, and the best practices emerging across cancer care, chronic disease, and primary care. 🔗 LINKS Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/p/the-agent... More episodes: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/... Tjaša Zajc on LinkedIn:   / tjasazajc   Eric Sutherland on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/esutherla... #AgenticPatient #AIinHealthcare #DigitalHealth #FacesOfDigitalHealth #HealthcareAI #ChatGPT #PatientEmpowerment #ChronicIllness #AIliteracy #MedicalAI #PatientAdvocacy #DigitalTransformation