Sharing isn’t always caring

Sharing isn’t always caring
Tanmay Patel
June 20, 2025
AI in Healthcare: A Privacy Checklist for Clinics in Australia and Beyond

As Australia wraps up Privacy Awareness Week 2025, it’s a timely reminder for healthcare clinics everywhere: when it comes to AI tools, privacy isn’t a feature — it’s a responsibility.

If your clinic is exploring AI in healthcare, such as an AI receptionist for healthcare clinics to handle calls, manage bookings, and support your team, here’s a quick checklist to help you cut through the hype and ensure patient data stays protected:


1. Tools should only access what’s essential

AI systems should only connect to the bare minimum — like a patient’s name or appointment time. Everything else should stay disconnected. The less access your AI has, the lower the privacy risk.

2. Demand encryption and local data storage

All sensitive patient information must be encrypted both in transit and at rest — and stored directly by your provider, not passed to third parties. Whenever possible, ensure data stays within your country to meet local privacy laws, like Australia’s Privacy Act.

3. Check for a breach response plan

If there’s a data breach, your provider should have a clear plan: fast alerts, swift remediation steps, and full support for your clinic. If they don’t, that’s a serious red flag.

4. Say no to data training

Choose AI tools that don’t train their models on your clinic’s data. There’s a crucial difference between customisation (personalising your service) and training (feeding your private data back into the AI). The latter puts patient confidentiality at risk.

⚠️ The reality?

AI platforms not purpose-built for healthcare — including many general virtual assistants — often fail these privacy tests. Non-compliance isn’t just possible, it’s inevitable.

If you’re in Australia, check out oaic.gov.au for official guidance on healthcare privacy compliance. Otherwise, visit your local privacy regulator’s site for region-specific rules.

These are just a few of the checks your clinic should be making before adopting any AI receptionist for healthcare.

💜 At Lyngo, our AI receptionist was built specifically for healthcare, handling all of these privacy standards in every country we operate.

So your clinic can stay compliant and focus on what matters most: delivering excellent patient care.

Tanmay Patel
June 20, 2025
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