Urologista entrega recomendações de IA não validadas a paciente em Portugal
A urologist in Portugal reportedly gave a patient unvalidated AI-generated medical recommendations from Google's Gemini tool during a paid consultation for kidney issues. The Portuguese Medical Association criticised the practice as a failure to meet professional standards, stating that AI must be validated by physicians before use in patient care.
What happened
A urologist at Trofa Saúde Hospital da Trofa delivered to a patient a printed page of medical recommendations generated by Google's Gemini AI tool during a urology consultation on 2 June 2026, without prior clinical validation.
The patient, who sought a personalised nutritional plan for a renal problem, received instead a sheet marked at the top as 'IA overview' (vista geral de IA) directly from the chatbot, which the doctor had printed and handed over without explaining whether the content had been reviewed or adapted to the patient's clinical condition.
Reported impact
The patient, who paid approximately 90 euros for the consultation, described the experience as unprecedented and disappointing, stating 'Never experienced such a thing. I would have preferred he took his time' and criticised it as 'a lack of consideration'.
Index analysis
The Ordem dos Médicos (Portuguese Medical Association) stated that it had no formal knowledge of the specific case but emphasised that responsibility for the medical act belongs to the healthcare professional, and that AI is a tool of support, not a substitute.
The association's president Carlos Cortes characterised use of a generalist chatbot to produce basic nutritional recommendations in a urology context as 'profoundly unskilled', revealing lack of preparation and compromising patient trust, and noted the situation assumes greater gravity if AI-generated information is used to support diagnoses or therapeutic decisions, which could justify disciplinary investigation.
Governance controls
The Ordem dos Médicos distinguishes between certified technological tools for clinical support and generalist chatbots, whose responses do not constitute validated medical guidance, and stressed that all information obtained via AI must be obligatorily validated by the physician before reaching the patient.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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