Question for your doctor? Artificial intelligence can help.

Health systems are turning to artificial intelligence to solve a major challenge for doctors: seeing a steady flow of patients while also responding promptly to people's messages with questions about their care.

Physicians at three different health care systems across the U.S. are testing a "generative" AI tool based on ChatGPT that automatically drafts responses to patients' queries about their symptoms, medications and other medical issues. The goal is to help cut down on the time doctors spend on written communications and free them up to see more patients in-person, as well focus on more medically complex tasks. 

UC San Diego Health and UW Health have been piloting the tool since April. Stanford Health Care, considered one of the country's leading hospitals, expects to make its AI tool available to some physicians beginning next week. At least a dozen or so physicians are already using it on a regular basis as part of the trial.