Nearly Half of Canadians Now Ask AI for Medical Advice — Smart Move or Risk? 近一半加拿大人问 AI 看病，这是进步还是风险？真的靠谱吗？

When something feels off with your body, what do you do first? Book your family doctor, head to a walk-in clinic — or open ChatGPT or Google Gemini, type in your symptoms, and ask? For a growing number of Canadians, AI has become a real source of health information. The interesting part: even as people use AI more, most still believe that real diagnosis and treatment should come from a doctor. 当身体出现不适时，你会怎么做？是预约家庭医生、去 Walk-in Clinic，还是先打开 ChatGPT、Google Gemini 等人工智能工具，输入自己的症状问一问？对于越来越多加拿大人来说，AI 已经成为获取健康信息的重要渠道。但有趣的是，虽然大家越来越常使用 AI，大多数人仍然认为：真正的诊断和治疗，还是应该由医生来完成。

Nearly half of Canadians have asked AI a health question近一半加拿大人曾向 AI 咨询健康问题

According to recent polling from Liaison Strategies, about 46% of Canadians used an AI chat tool for medical or health advice in the past year. In other words, almost half of us have turned to AI for things like: 根据加拿大民调机构 Liaison Strategies 最新公布的调查结果，约 46% 的加拿大人在过去一年中曾使用人工智能聊天工具获取医疗健康相关建议。换句话说，几乎每两个人中就有一人曾向 AI 咨询过：

• Making sense of symptoms身体症状分析
• Background on a condition疾病相关信息
• Medication details and side effects药物说明与副作用
• Understanding a test report检查报告解释
• Questions about treatment options治疗方案相关问题

The result isn't surprising. Canada's healthcare system continues to face a shortage of family doctors and long wait times. When something feels wrong, many people simply can't get professional advice right away. AI's advantages are obvious by comparison: available 24/7, near-instant answers, a low barrier to use, and free in most cases. So more and more people are treating AI as a new channel for health information. 这一结果其实并不令人意外。近年来，加拿大医疗系统持续面临家庭医生短缺、预约等待时间长等问题。许多人出现身体不适后，往往无法第一时间获得专业医疗建议。相比之下，AI 工具最大的优势非常明显：24 小时随时可用；几乎即时获得回复；使用门槛低；大部分情况下免费。因此，越来越多人开始把 AI 当作获取健康资讯的新渠道。

But people still trust a real doctor to diagnose但真正的诊断，人们依然相信真人医生

Asking AI is one thing; handing over your health is another. The polling found that 68% of Canadians said that even if it meant waiting two weeks, they'd still rather get a diagnosis from a doctor than act on AI's conclusion right away. Only about 13% said they'd accept a diagnosis made by AI alone, with a prescription to match. It points to a telling pattern: people are happy to ask AI — but not to hand their health over to it entirely. 虽然不少加拿大人会向 AI 寻求帮助，但当涉及真正的诊断和治疗时，人们依然更愿意相信真人医生。调查显示：68% 的加拿大人表示，即使需要等待两周时间，他们仍然更愿意接受医生的诊断，而不是立即采用 AI 给出的结论。只有约 13% 的受访者表示，愿意接受由 AI 独立完成诊断并直接提供处方建议。这说明一个非常有趣的现象：大家愿意向 AI 咨询，却不愿意把自己的健康完全交给 AI。

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) has found something similar: while only about a quarter of Canadians think AI can give accurate medical information, nearly half actually use it to look up health questions. In other words, even people with doubts about AI's accuracy will still ask it first when something comes up. 加拿大医学协会（CMA）此前发布的调查同样发现：虽然只有约四分之一的加拿大人认为 AI 能够提供准确的医疗信息，但实际使用 AI 查询健康问题的人数却接近一半。这意味着：即使用户对 AI 的准确性有所保留，依然会在身体出现问题时先问 AI。

Where AI falls shortAI 的局限在哪里

The CMA notes that more and more patients are judging their own conditions based on what AI tells them — and even adjusting their own treatment. That's exactly what worries medical experts. The problem with AI isn't that it's useless; it's that it sometimes gives answers that sound highly professional but aren't actually accurate. AI can't: 加拿大医学协会指出，越来越多患者会根据 AI 提供的信息自行判断病情，甚至自行调整治疗方式。而这恰恰是医疗专家最担心的地方。因为 AI 的问题不在于完全没用，而在于：它有时候会给出听起来非常专业、实际上却并不准确的答案。AI 无法：

• Perform a physical exam进行体格检查
• Observe your real symptoms观察患者真实症状
• Know your full medical history了解完整病史
• Account for your family's genetic background掌握家族遗传背景
• Weigh the risk of complex conditions together综合判断复杂疾病风险

For serious conditions like cancer, heart disease, or stroke, a text-based Q&A often can't reach an accurate judgment. 对于癌症、心脏病、中风等重大疾病来说，仅靠文字问答往往很难做出准确判断。

What AI is genuinely good forAI 最适合做什么？

AI isn't really a competitor to your doctor — it's more like a medical assistant. For things like these, it can genuinely help: 事实上，AI 并不是医生的竞争者，更像是一位医疗助手。对于以下情况，AI 往往能发挥不错的辅助作用：

• Looking up basic health information查询基础健康知识
• Understanding medication instructions了解药物说明
• Organizing your questions before an appointment整理就诊问题
• Making sense of a test report理解检查报告内容
• Translating medical jargon帮助阅读医学术语
• Describing your symptoms clearly before a visit就诊前整理症状描述

Many patients use AI to organize their questions before seeing a doctor, and to help make sense of results afterward. Used this way, it can make the conversation with your doctor more productive. 很多患者会在看医生之前利用 AI 整理问题，在就诊之后利用 AI 帮助理解检查结果。这种使用方式，通常能够提高医疗沟通效率。

The AI era is here — but doctors aren't going anywhereAI 时代来了，但医生仍不可替代

As AI keeps advancing, its role in healthcare is expanding fast — from scheduling and records to research and decision support, it's already changing how the whole system runs. In the future, we'll likely see AI help doctors analyze records, support the reading of test results, make the system more efficient, and get patients timely information. But for now, most Canadians land in the same place: when it comes to their own body and health, they'll listen to AI — and still trust a doctor's judgment more. 随着人工智能技术持续发展，AI 在医疗领域的应用正在快速扩大。从预约管理、病历整理，到医学研究、辅助诊断，人工智能已经开始改变整个医疗行业的运作方式。未来，我们很可能会看到：AI 帮助医生分析病历；AI 辅助判断检查结果；AI 提高医疗系统效率；AI 帮助患者获得更及时的信息支持。但至少在目前，大多数加拿大人的答案仍然非常一致：当涉及自己的身体和健康时，大家愿意听取 AI 的意见，却仍然更相信医生的判断。

Can't find a family doctor?找不到家庭医生怎么办？

For many people in Canada, the real problem isn't whether to trust AI — it's not being able to get an appointment at all. If you don't have a family doctor, the walk-in wait is too long, or you just want some initial guidance, a growing number of online medical services can help too. AI can help you understand information, but for diagnosis, medication, and treatment decisions, it's still best to consult a licensed health professional. Health is never a multiple-choice question with one right answer — AI can support the thinking, but the one accountable for the decision should still be a qualified doctor. 对于许多加拿大居民来说，最大的现实问题，往往不是是否相信 AI，而是根本约不到医生。如果没有家庭医生、Walk-in Clinic 等待时间太长，或者只是希望获得初步医疗建议，如今也有越来越多线上医疗服务可以作为补充选择。AI 可以帮助您了解信息，但当涉及诊断、用药及治疗决定时，仍建议咨询持牌医疗专业人士。健康问题从来不是一道标准答案题——AI 可以辅助判断，但最终负责的，仍然应该是专业医生。

Common questions常见问题

How Careby fits in康伴如何提供帮助

At Careby, we see AI as a helpful assistant — but health management should never stop at searching and guessing. What matters is being able to reach a real doctor's advice when you need it, with less waiting, so you can manage your health more proactively. AI can be a companion along the way; when it comes to diagnosis, medication, and treatment, a professional's judgment stays irreplaceable. Careby exists to help more people in Canada get faster, easier, more proactive care — so seeing a doctor doesn't have to start with a long wait. Careby 康伴认为，AI 可以帮助我们获取信息，但健康管理从来不应该只停留在搜索和猜测。真正重要的是，在需要的时候，能够及时获得专业医生的建议，减少等待，更主动地管理自己的健康。AI 可以成为健康路上的助手，但当涉及诊断、用药和治疗决策时，专业医生的判断，依然不可替代。Careby 康伴，希望帮助更多加拿大居民实现更快、更便捷、更主动的健康管理，让看医生这件事，不必总是从漫长等待开始。