AI is Changing Patient Search and Medical Practices Need To Evolve

By Evan Steele, founder and CEO, rater8.

The way patients search for care is undergoing a seismic shift. Traditional search results, those familiar blue links we’re all familiar with, are giving way to answers generated by artificial intelligence (AI).

Tools like Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), ChatGPT, and Perplexity are now delivering curated, conversational responses that quickly guide patients to providers — and away from your website. This shift has major implications for how healthcare practices get discovered, and trusted, by new patients online.

Why This Matters

Healthcare is one of the industries most affected by these changes, and the implications are real: websites are seeing less organic traffic, ad costs are rising, and providers with weak online reputations are falling off the map entirely.

In the past, patients might have searched “best orthopedic surgeon near me” and combed through the local listings. Today, they’re more likely to be conversational with their search queries and ask questions such as, “Who’s the best orthopedic surgeon in Austin accepting new patients?”

AI responds with a single answer, not a list of options. And the practices that show up? They’re the ones with a strong online presence, detailed reviews, and structured content that’s easy for AI to parse through.

Moreover, Google is now citing its own reviews in AI Overviews, alongside third-party listings like Healthgrades and Vitals. This change signals a broader shift: Google is casting a wider net to populate AI-generated results, which means practices must maintain a presence across all major review platforms. Visibility is no longer just about ranking high on Google — it’s about being referenced in the sources that AI has already been trained to trust.

Structured Review Content

Instead of ranking pages based on keywords, AI relies on structured data, also known as schema markup, on a page. Schema markup acts as a guiding signal to help AI better understand and prioritize the best, most relevant content for the user. Adding schema markup to your review pages helps search engines parse this content effectively, and can have a major impact on where, and whether, you show up in search results.

3 Ways to Get Found in AI Search

Here are a few tactical strategies healthcare organizations can adopt to stay ahead in AI search and earn more local visibility:

1. Collect reviews across multiple platforms: AI relies on data beyond Google, meaning your practice needs a balanced online image across multiple review sites such as Healthgrades, Vitals, WebMD, and Facebook. Consistently gathering reviews on these platforms doesn’t just strengthen your online reputation, it also provides fresh, patient-generated sentiment on sites that Google and AI models already trust.
2. Publish patient reviews in a structured, AI-friendly format: Verified reviews listings, pages that aggregate patient feedback by provider in a clean, schema-rich structure, can also improve how your practice is represented in AI Overviews, LLM responses, and chatbot-generated answers. Adding these types of reviews to your homepage and provider bio pages not only increases your visibility in AI-driven search results, but also strengthens your social proof of quality care for prospective patients.
3. Monitor non-traditional platforms like Reddit and Quora: Tap into discussions that are happening on platforms such as Reddit and Quora. These online forums are spaces where people are having candid conversations about symptoms, treatments, and when to see a provider. Forums like these offer valuable information to AI-driven search results, with a particular emphasis on Reddit results training Gemini’s LLM.

Looking Ahead

AI search is not a passing trend, it’s already here. And while it certainly presents some uncertainty, it also opens up new opportunities for practices that act swiftly.

Being “discoverable” for patients in your area in the age of AI means having more than just a good-looking website; rather, building trust and authority through structured, review-rich content is key to ensuring your data is organized in a way AI tools can digest. This way prospective patients won’t just find your providers and organization, but AI-driven search will actively recommend your services to potential patients at the very top of search results.