To tell or not to tell: Do patients really need to know who—or what—writes their doctor’s notes?

AI in Healthcare March 11, 2025
Dave Pearson

When blinded as to authorship, healthcare consumers slightly prefer medical messages composed by generative AI to those written by human clinicians.

The preference reverses when patients are told an algorithm drafted the AI-generated note. However, the difference is negligible: More than 75% are good with these messages no matter who—or what—writes them.

The findings are from Duke University, where researchers received survey responses on the topic from 1,455 patients as represented by the institution’s patient advisory committee.

“The lack of difference in preferences between human vs no disclosure may indicate that surveyed participants assume a human author unless explicitly told otherwise,” hospitalist Joanna Cavalier, MD, and colleagues comment in their study report. Regardless, they add:

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