Fitbit is working on an under-the-radar experimental feature that would help you stay relaxed before a stressful appointment. Internally called Plan for Care, it generates a list that maps out your self-reported symptoms into a practical prep sheet for your next doctor’s visit, including possible explanations to explore and an estimate of urgency — while emphasizing it is not a diagnosis.
What Fitbit Is Testing in Its New Pre-Visit AI Feature
Code found in the latest Fitbit app indicates a Fitbit Labs project that also goes by working names like Care Advocate and Pre-Visit Lab. The feature asks users to describe their symptoms and then provides informational examples of what the conditions might be, along with how much urgency one might have in seeing a medical care provider. It also puts together a “prep sheet” of objectives, questions, and pertinent history to take into exam rooms.
Preliminarily, it looks like the rollout may be limited: the eligibility checks suggest an initial pilot would focus on legal adults in the United States with state-specific ages explicitly noted (21 in Mississippi; 19 in Nebraska and Alabama; otherwise 18). Fitbit marks the feature as investigational and research-only, noting that generative AI can make errors and should not be relied upon for self-diagnosis or determining treatment.
How It Might Help With Pre-Visit Anxiety
Pre-appointment jitters are standard issue, and they can cloud conversations with their clinicians. A new study in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine has found that patients forget a great deal of what doctors tell them after treatments, and much of what they do recall is incorrect. Patients with an organized prep sheet can articulate concerns, remember timelines, and ask clearer, more focused questions.
There is also the “white coat effect.” White coat hypertension — high readings only in the doctor’s office — is thought to affect 15 percent to 30 percent of patients with high office blood pressure, according to the American Heart Association. Fitbit’s tool is not a blood pressure feature, but anything that makes the appointment less mysterious, and makes a patient feel they have a plan, could help combat the stress that undermines communication — as well as blood pressure results in some cases.
Evidence-based patient tools, such as question prompt lists, have been systematically evaluated by several health care studies and Cochrane analyses to improve active participation of patients and recall of information. Plan for Care seems to bring that concept into the consumer wearable space, meeting users where they already track sleep, activity, and symptoms.
Privacy and safety guardrails for experimental use
Fitbit’s wording emphasizes that there are very strong limits to follow: the feature does not use your broader health history for analysis, and it uses only the symptoms you describe. Warnings say the material may be incomplete, out of date, or otherwise not clinically accurate, and it hasn’t been vetted by professionals. It is not meant to diagnose or treat any condition and you should consult your doctor for emergencies.
Those disclaimers matter. Framing Plan for Care as a research study also keeps it free of regulation that is applied to medical devices, while it establishes baselines of what might be expected from unwieldy language models. All recommendations to expedite are suggestions, prompts to act — in this case, to schedule a visit sooner rather than a triage verdict.
What it could look like in practice for common visits
A user could write that they had two weeks of episodic chest tightness that gets worse with spicy foods and stress. Plan for Care would help auto-generate a summary detecting trends, flagging other possible causes (acid reflux, musculoskeletal strain, cardiac), and recommending immediate face-to-face evaluation based on risk factors. The prep sheet might offer practical advice like the suggestion to bring a symptom diary and a list of medications and supplements, or prompt you to inquire about tests that will rule out immediate concerns.
For another case — say, frequent migraines — the tool could assist the user in documenting triggers, medications tried in the past, and what they’d like to accomplish during the visit (discussing prophylactic options). The above output is intended to facilitate a higher-quality discussion, not a replacement for professional judgment.
What comes next for Fitbit’s Plan for Care pilot
No word on timing from Fitbit, but mention of prep history, savable visit summaries, and a “start conversation” flow seem to point to a coherent experience versus a one-time checklist. Given Google’s larger health AI efforts, like its study of medical reasoning models, it wouldn’t be shocking if Plan for Care advances rapidly once it has real-world feedback under its belt.
If the pilot does continue, look for careful guardrails, adult-only access, and iterative changes informed by clinician and user feedback. Done well — with a good system of prompts and suggestions — the waiting room wait could be another positive part of the visit.
