AI can still be useful even when you do not paste real client information into it.
This matters because many allied health professionals are trying to solve a real problem. They want AI to help with writing, structure, planning, plain-English wording, education material, or admin tasks. But the examples that make a prompt useful often come from real work. A client story. A referral. A clinical note. A family situation. A funding goal. A workplace issue.
That is where privacy risk starts.
If the tool is public, personal, or not approved for that kind of information, the safer move is to change the task before using AI. You can often get useful help without giving the tool the real client’s details.
Start by naming the task
Before opening an AI tool, write down what you actually want help with.
For example:
- I want a general handout about fatigue management.
- I want headings for a progress report.
- I want a plain-English explanation of a clinical concept.
- I want ideas for a fictional teaching case.
- I want a checklist for a home exercise review.
- I want a staff in-service outline.
- I want to improve the tone of a general email.
Once the task is clear, ask whether AI needs the real client information to do that task. Often it does not.
If you want a structure, ask for a structure. If you want general wording, ask for general wording. If you want teaching ideas, use a fictional case. If you want a checklist, describe the appointment type rather than the person.
Use fictional cases
Fictional cases are useful when you want AI to help with teaching, reflection, planning, or general ideas without using a real person’s story.
Instead of pasting a real case history, create an invented example that keeps the broad learning point but changes the details.
You might keep:
- the broad age group
- the general setting
- the type of goal
- the broad clinical theme
- the kind of communication challenge
You should change or remove:
- names
- dates
- location
- school, workplace, or service names
- rare or unusual details
- exact timelines
- family details
- funding identifiers
- anything that points back to one real person
This is more than replacing a name. The test is whether someone who knows the person could recognise them from the details entered.
Ask for structure, not client wording
AI is often useful for structure.
For example, you can ask:
Give me a structure for a plain-English allied health progress summary for a family.
Or:
Create headings for a therapy plan review. Include sections for goals, progress, barriers, next steps, and questions for the team.
Those prompts do not need the client’s details. They give you a framework. You then add the client-specific information yourself, inside the approved clinical system or local documentation process.
This approach keeps the clinical reasoning with the clinician. AI helps with the blank page, but it does not receive the client story.
Use general versions of the problem
A general prompt can still be useful if you give the right boundaries.
Instead of:
Rewrite this handout for my 67-year-old client John, who lives in [small town], has [specific diagnosis], had a fall on [date], and is struggling with [specific family situation].
Use:
Draft a general handout for older adults about reducing falls risk at home. Use plain English. Keep it practical. Do not include individual medical advice. Include a reminder to speak with their treating clinician.
The second prompt may not produce a final handout, but it can give you a useful first draft. You can then review it, correct it, localise it, and decide whether it fits your service.
Use public information
AI can help summarise or reformat information that is already public, as long as the output is checked.
Examples include:
- turning public website information into a draft FAQ
- summarising public research abstracts for a journal club
- creating discussion questions from a public guideline
- rewriting public health information in simpler language
- drafting a staff education outline from public source material
The source still matters. AI can misunderstand, overstate, or invent. If the output will shape care, education, policy, or public-facing advice, check the original source.
Use templates and placeholders
Placeholders can help when you want AI to improve formatting or wording without seeing the real details.
For example:
Rewrite this appointment instruction in plain English. Keep the placeholders unchanged: [CLIENT NAME], [DATE], [CLINIC], [PHONE NUMBER], [APPOINTMENT TYPE].
Or:
Create a report template using placeholders. Include [CLIENT GOAL], [ASSESSMENT FINDINGS], [CLINICIAN RECOMMENDATION], and [REVIEW DATE].
The finished output still needs review, but the prompt does not contain client information.
Keep clinical judgement out of the prompt
There is a difference between asking AI to help with wording and asking it to make a clinical judgement.
Lower-risk:
- “Draft a general handout about pacing.”
- “Create a checklist for preparing for a home visit.”
- “Suggest headings for a staff in-service.”
- “Rewrite this general explanation in plain English.”
Higher-risk:
- “What treatment should this client have?”
- “Is this person safe to go home?”
- “Write the clinical recommendation from these notes.”
- “Interpret these assessment findings.”
- “Decide whether this person meets funding criteria.”
If the output could affect care, records, funding, rights, risk, or communication with other providers, it needs a different level of review and a more careful tool choice.
Use the approved system for real details
If the task genuinely requires identifiable client information, do not try to solve that by lightly editing the case and pasting it into a public AI tool.
That is the point where the team should ask:
- Is this tool approved for this information?
- Has the workflow been reviewed locally?
- What are clients told?
- Is consent required?
- Where is the information stored?
- Who checks the output?
- Does this belong in a clinical system rather than a public AI tool?
For many everyday tasks, AI can help before or around the clinical work without receiving the real clinical content.
A practical before-you-paste habit
Before using AI, ask:
- What task am I trying to complete?
- Does AI need real client information for this task?
- Can I use a fictional, general, public, or placeholder version instead?
- Could someone recognise the person from the details entered?
- Is the tool approved for this type of information?
- Who reviews the output before it is used?
If those questions are hard to answer, pause before pasting.
For a shorter prompt-by-prompt check, use the Before You Paste Into AI checklist.
If your team needs a small set of templates and discussion prompts for this issue, see the AHAI AI Privacy Starter Pack.
Source note
This article is a practical educational resource, not legal or clinical advice. It is informed by OAIC guidance on privacy and commercially available AI products, Ahpra guidance on AI in healthcare, and the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care AI resources.