{"title":"I Have Cancer. Here's Exactly How I Use AI to Stay Ahead of It.","summary":"Seven ways I use AI to organize my care, ask better questions, watch for trials and make sense of my health data.","body":"![AI-generated robot with laser eyes](/media/7315aa17-ee71-4282-bbe3-7535add3a750)\n\nMost people use AI for their health like a Magic 8 Ball. Vague question, vague answer, feel better or worse, close the app.\n\nI was diagnosed with lung cancer in July 2024. Never smoked. Since then, AI has caught a drug side effect I never knew about, found me a clinical trial an hour from my house, and kept 150+ appointments from turning into chaos.\n\nI'm sharing the whole setup because I think every patient should run some version of it.\n\n**You don't need to be technical. You need to be proactive.**\n\nHere are the 7 pieces. Steal whatever helps.\n\n## 1. Give it rules, not open questions\n\nAn open-ended health question is just Dr. Google with better grammar. One lab is off, AI lists five causes, and you're up at 2 AM over a nothingburger.\n\nSo I give it rules:\n\n![9 rules for asking AI about your health](/media/a56b9c1d-1969-4e1b-880c-c31705fb98ef)\n\n**Open-ended questions get you noise. Rules get you signal.**\n\nRead the [9 rules I use to ask AI about my health](/cancer/resources/ask-ai-about-your-health/).\n\n## 2. Put a bot on trial watch\n\nI'd been watching a new drug for my cancer, but not if it meant flying across the country over and over.\n\nA Grok Bot I built watches for new trials and treatments for my exact diagnosis. It found that trial an hour from my house. I never would have known on my own, and I'm pretty on top of this stuff.\n\n**New trials open regularly. You may need to look for them yourself.**\n\nFind Cancer Curer in [AI & Your Care](/ai-your-care/).\n\n## 3. Give your AI a notebook\n\nAI does not automatically know your personal history. The stuff that matters most for your care isn't: what your doctor said last visit, when a symptom started, what the trial nurse told you on the phone.\n\nSo I keep it all in Notion. 20+ pages. I use AI to write to it and read from it when I need that context.\n\n![My Notion health notebook hub](/media/4185d694-4e5d-47ab-9f7f-a3774b15d13a)\n\nIf you're starting from zero, start with 3 pages:\n\n- Symptoms log: what, when it started, when it stopped, pain 1-10\n- Visit notes: what each doctor said, plus questions for next time\n- Options: every treatment or trial anyone has mentioned, and who said it\n\n**Your doctors may each see a different slice. A notebook helps you bring the pieces together.**\n\nRead [how I keep my health notebook](/cancer/resources/ai-health-notebook/).\n\n## 4. Record every appointment\n\nI record every care conversation. In person, phone, video, trial teams. I ask first. Most doctors record these days too.\n\nThen AI turns it into something useful:\n\n- The notetaker emails me a summary\n- My AI pulls out the handful of things that actually matter\n- It logs them in my notebook\n- Next visit, it flags when two doctors told me different things\n\n**A 30-minute appointment is a firehose. Nobody remembers it all.**\n\nA full guide to recording appointments is coming soon.\n\n## 5. Connect your real records\n\nChatGPT's Health feature can connect to your medical records and Apple Health. With your permission, it can use information from supported connected records and Apple Health when relevant. Check what is connected and whether the information is current.\n\nThat's the difference between advice for \"a patient\" and advice for you.\n\n**Your records give AI more context, but its answers still need checking.**\n\nAvailability depends on your account, location and connected providers. Read [how I use ChatGPT Health with my records](/cancer/resources/chatgpt-health-medical-records/).\n\n## 6. Ask about your data, not your symptoms\n\nThis summer my resting heart rate jumped to about 78. I assumed something new was wrong.\n\nOne structured prompt went through 3 years of my Apple Watch data and found something I never knew in thousands of hours of using AI: my old cancer pill had been holding my heart rate down. About 66 before it. About 61 on it. So part of the \"spike\" was me coming off the drug.\n\n![Resting heart rate from 2023 to now, before, on and after alectinib](/media/97a967f0-2561-4d27-8033-928fbd37f9c3)\n\nNot all of it. My doctors are working on the rest. But I walked in with the right question instead of a panic.\n\n**Your phone already has years of health data. Most people never ask it anything.**\n\nA guide to asking AI about your data is coming soon.\n\n## 7. Keep up on everything else\n\nCancer isn't my only health problem. My cancer pill quietly pushed my blood pressure to 150/100.\n\nSo I built a second bot. Every day it sends a short, sourced brief on what's new for any condition, with the hype filtered out. Mine tracks high blood pressure. Yours could track diabetes, migraines, or your mom's Parkinson's.\n\n**Most days it tells me nothing important happened. That's the best part.**\n\nFind My Health Watch in [AI & Your Care](/ai-your-care/).\n\n## What AI doesn't do\n\nIt doesn't replace my doctors. Every answer gets checked. The good ones go to my oncologist as questions, not as orders.\n\n**AI doesn't make my decisions. It makes sure I'm making them with everything on the table.**\n\n## Why I'm sharing all of this\n\nMost patients get handed a folder and told to wait. I don't think you have to wait anymore.\n\nThe tools are here, most are free, and none of this needs code. I'd rather show you exactly what I do than keep it to myself.\n\nPick one piece and set it up this week. If you only do one, start with the notebook. Everything else gets better once your AI knows your story.\n\n\n\n\nI’m not a doctor and this isn’t medical advice. Talk to your care team before changing your care.","topics":["ai-your-care"],"capabilities":[],"sources":[{"id":"openai-health","label":"Health in ChatGPT","url":"https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001036-health-in-chatgpt","publisher":"OpenAI","checkedAt":"2026-10-27","supports":"How Health connects supported data, with user permission and availability limitations.","type":"official"}],"applicability":"For patients and caregivers exploring ways to organize information and prepare questions.","limitations":"Personal experience, not medical advice. AI can be wrong; check sources and discuss decisions with your care team. Connected tools and availability vary.","disclosure":{"type":"none","text":"I use these tools as an ordinary user or customer. I have no paid partnership, investment, advisory role, special compensation or other business relationship with the companies mentioned."},"reviewedAt":"2026-10-27","relatedTools":["cancer-curer","my-health-watch"],"relatedIds":["2a74a16b-3c6d-458f-a871-c95e0b847f58","5209b08a-d248-40cd-bad2-dc8bf8518a23","af2e7c15-d7c9-4b91-af55-0a9a764eb515"],"assetIds":["7315aa17-ee71-4282-bbe3-7535add3a750","4185d694-4e5d-47ab-9f7f-a3774b15d13a","97a967f0-2561-4d27-8033-928fbd37f9c3","a56b9c1d-1969-4e1b-880c-c31705fb98ef","47b0828b-0be6-4831-863e-67e81758c708","746f2cb6-305f-4482-bf72-8cc5629d867e"],"artworkBrief":"A practical overview of using AI to organize health records, prepare questions and research options.","relatedX":[],"facts":[],"id":"335a4cc3-0a24-4dcd-9ce9-8b7f58525bc3","kind":"resource","slug":"how-i-use-ai-cancer","revision":"8176c3fa-a397-48ea-a58a-fa4e58f0536d","canonicalUrl":"https://kevinwimer.com/cancer/resources/how-i-use-ai-cancer/","publishedAt":"2026-10-27T18:25:07.104Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-27T18:25:07.104Z","previewOnly":false,"illustrationAssetId":"47b0828b-0be6-4831-863e-67e81758c708","shareImageAssetId":"746f2cb6-305f-4482-bf72-8cc5629d867e"}