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4 min read

Steal My Prompt Vol. 36: The Healthcare Decision Tree

Comparing treatment options on Google leaves you with more information and less clarity. This prompt flips the order: you rank what matters to you first, then build a comparison table against your own priorities to bring to your care team.

You leave the specialist's office with three options, two opinions, and one decision to make.

You open Google. The first article tells you to choose option A. The second pushes option B. A Reddit thread argues for watchful waiting. By the end of the night, you have more information and less clarity. The decision has not moved an inch.

This happens because most medical decisions get framed as a choice between options. They are not. They are a choice between what you value most, applied to options that each carry different tradeoffs. Recovery time. Side-effect tolerance. Cost. Lifestyle impact. Until you name your criteria, comparing options just becomes a Google rabbit hole.

This prompt forces the inverse. Before you see the options arranged side by side, you rank what matters to you. Then the comparison table builds against your priorities, not against whatever your last article emphasized. Big medical decisions deserve more rigor than a Google search. This is the framework I use for mine.

What You Can Use This For

  • Comparing two or more treatment options your specialist presented, including watchful waiting
  • Choosing between two specialists or two treatment centers for the same condition
  • Deciding whether to enter a clinical trial against standard treatment
  • Helping a parent or aging family member structure a major medical decision they have to make
  • Weighing a recommended procedure against a lifestyle intervention with comparable evidence
  • Preparing for a follow-up appointment where you need to come back with a direction

How to Use It

Step 1. Open Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or Gemini on the free tier. The prompt is model-agnostic.

Step 2. For a high-stakes decision like this, turn on the reasoning model option in the tool you are using. That is "Extended thinking" in Claude, the reasoning model in ChatGPT, "Think Deeper" in Microsoft Copilot, or "Deep Think" in Gemini. Reasoning catches more on the first pass and pushes back harder on shallow ranking.

Step 3. Copy the prompt and fill in the bracketed fields. Be specific about your options and your life context. The richer the input, the sharper the table.

Step 4. Slow down on the ranking step. This is the whole mechanic. The temptation is to half-rank or to skip ahead and see the table. Resist. The order of your priorities is the most important data you give the model.

Step 5. Take the comparison table and the gap questions to your next appointment. The output is not a decision. It is a structured way to bring your decision to the people who help you make it.

Pro tip: Once you have the table back, ask the model to play devil's advocate against your top-ranked option. That second pass stress-tests your preference before you commit, which is the move most people skip and regret later.

The Prompt

You are my decision-facilitation assistant for a high-stakes healthcare decision. You are not a medical advisor and will not recommend a specific treatment. Your role is to help me structure the decision so I can make it with my care team.

Here is the context:

The decision I am facing: [BRIEFLY DESCRIBE WHAT YOU NEED TO DECIDE]

The options on the table: [LIST 2-4 OPTIONS YOUR SPECIALIST PRESENTED, INCLUDING WATCHFUL WAITING IF THAT IS ONE]

What I already know about each option: [PASTE ANYTHING YOUR SPECIALIST EXPLAINED, INCLUDING TIMELINES, RISKS, OR PROVIDER PREFERENCES]

My life context: [AGE, WORK OR CAREGIVING RESPONSIBILITIES, RELEVANT MEDICAL HISTORY, INSURANCE TYPE]

Work through this in order. Do not skip steps.

Step 1: Ranked criteria first. Before showing me anything else, ask me to name my top 5 decision criteria and rank them from most to least important. Criteria may include: reversibility, recovery time, side-effect tolerance, cost out-of-pocket, lifestyle impact, success rate evidence, time to results, or alignment with my values about [intervention level / quality of life / risk tolerance]. Force me to rank, not just list. Do not proceed to Step 2 until I have given you a ranked list.

Step 2: Build the comparison table. Create a table with my ranked criteria as rows (in my ranking order) and each option as a column. Fill in what I have told you. Where information is missing or unclear, mark the cell "Need to confirm" and add that question to a list at the bottom for me to bring to my care team.

Step 3: Surface the structural read. Below the table, give me three things:

  • Where the options differ most when measured against my top-ranked criteria
  • Whether any option is clearly disqualified by my top criterion
  • The 2-3 most important questions I should bring back to my care team before deciding

Output: one comparison table, then a short plain-language summary. Do not recommend an option. Do not editorialize. Be specific. Be concise.

Transparency and Notes

  • Built and tested in Claude, free-tier compatible across all four major tools. The reasoning model option is strongly recommended for any decision of this weight.
  • Model-agnostic. No specific tool capability is required.
  • Privacy guidance: paste only the medical context you are comfortable sharing with a consumer AI tool. Consumer AI tools are not HIPAA-covered. Remove names, dates of birth, and identifiers before pasting if there is any chance the conversation is logged.
  • This is an educational framework, not medical, legal, or financial advice. Every decision belongs with your care team.

Published by:

Santosh Savel

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