A new study shows the open-source model DeepSeek-R1 beating GPT-4o in answering complex heart disease questions


 In a surprising upset for proprietary tech giants an open source AI model has taken the lead in patient communication. A 2026 study evaluated how well various AI models could answer patient inquiries about atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). The open source model DeepSeek R1 achieved a 96% "good response" rate outperforming both OpenAI's GPT-4o and Google's Gemini. The study highlights that specialized open source tools can be just as effective as expensive commercial models for patient education. However researchers noted a critical flaw across the board: all models, including DeepSeek, struggled to accurately provide specific treatment regimens reinforcing that while AI is an excellent educator it is not yet ready to be a prescriber.

Read the original article at: https://medinform.jmir.org/2026/1/e81422


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