A junior doctor I know types into ChatGPT, on his phone, during a break: "70 year old male, K+ 5.8, peaked T-waves, on furosemide and spironolactone, eGFR 28. What's the first step?"

ChatGPT returns a textbook answer. Calcium gluconate, insulin–dextrose, recheck K+ in an hour. Discontinue spironolactone. Consider salbutamol nebs.

The answer is correct. The answer is also slightly useless.

It is useless because:

The doctor had to restate the case. Every value he typed is already in the patient's chart on the ward computer thirty feet away. The act of typing the case into ChatGPT is the act of breaking the link between the AI's answer and the patient. The next time he wants to ask about this patient — say, an hour later when the recheck K+ comes back at 5.4 — he has to re-restate.

There are no citations he can verify. The answer is plausible, internally consistent, and produced without any indication of source. For a hyperkalemia case this is fine. For a case where the standard differs between AIIMS and NICE, it is not fine — the resident would need to know which one ChatGPT defaulted to, and the answer doesn't tell him.

The model doesn't know what is normal for this patient. A K+ of 5.8 in a stable CKD patient with chronic mild hyperkalemia is a different clinical situation than a K+ of 5.8 in an acute presentation. ChatGPT cannot tell — because it has not seen the patient's prior K+ values, their baseline, or their trajectory.

A context-aware AI consult fixes all three. It runs from inside the patient's record, so the doctor doesn't restate. It cites the source guideline it pulled from (AIIMS, ICMR, NICE) so the doctor can verify. And it sees the patient's prior values, so a K+ of 5.8 with a baseline of 5.4 is a different recommendation than a K+ of 5.8 with a baseline of 4.1.

This is the difference between an AI search engine and an AI workspace. The search engine is useful in the same way Wikipedia is useful — when you already know what to ask. The workspace is useful in the same way a senior at your shoulder is useful — when you don't.