SurvivorNet has debuted My Health Questions, an AI-driven platform embedded within the site designed to give people with cancer better answers to their treatment questions.

The platform works by asking users questions and using their responses to fine-tune subsequent interactions. SurvivorNet CEO and founder Steve Alperin likened it to “a sort of Intel Inside for health information.”

It’s worth noting what My Health Questions is not: A tool designed to aid in diagnosis or a symptom tracker. As the MHQ engine notes up front: “These answers are provided purely as information, not medical advice. We’re using AI from vetted sources and teaching the machines to help us. So please tell us here how the results could be better.”

“We’re not replacing any doctors and we’re not saying, ‘We’re going to diagnose your cancer,” Alperin stressed. “We’ve always been about helping people make better decisions and feel less alone while we’re doing it. My Health Questions is a big opportunity to further that mission.”

Developed over the course of the last year, My Health Questions represents both an ambitious expansion and a sizable investment for SurvivorNet. In form and function, it’s very aligned with SurvivorNet’s central mission: To help people with cancer and their families combat the overwhelming volume of information awaiting them at every click.

Given the pace of change in cancer treatment – “the research changes every hour,” said SurvivorNet advisor Jonathan Hills – the My Health Questions model is trained and re-trained on the most up-to-date information. “For this to be valuable, it needs to ask the right follow-up questions.”

My Health Questions also knows what it doesn’t know, Alperin said, and isn’t intended as the be-all and end-all for its audiences.

“Most people, when they don’t know something, they won’t tell you. We will,” he said. “We serve fragile people; I get up every day and remember that the person on the other end of this is fragile. The fact that I’m in love with my technology, which I am, is irrelevant.”

Alperin and Hills are quick to note that the development of My Health Questions was informed by a host of ethical considerations. “You hear this endless talk about cookies and segments, but what we’re doing here is an ethical value exchange: You tell us something about yourself, we give you something that will help you,” Alperin explained. “Our brand has the credibility to do this, I think.”

As for what comes next, both for My Health Questions and SurvivorNet, Hills sees an opportunity to “bring different formats of content beyond text into the experience” — say, by supplementing answers with relevant video from a physician. Alperin, for his part, sees potential applications of the technology in trial recruitment, especially as SurvivorNet pushes deeper into the rare-disease space.

“Everything we do will be about making it easy to have questions answered and have a little more control on your journey,” Alperin added. “It’s a big swing. It’s kind of thing a company like ours should be doing.”