Frequently asked questions

SecondLook is a diagnostic support tool built specifically for rare and complex conditions. You share your symptoms and medical history; our system runs your case through fifteen specialist AI perspectives in parallel, grounded in a knowledge base of 9,275 rare-disease profiles, and returns a ranked list of possibilities with the specific tests that could confirm each one.

Three groups. Undiagnosed adults who have seen multiple specialists without an answer. Parents navigating a child’s symptoms no one can connect. And anyone with a diagnosis they suspect is incomplete or wrong. If you’ve been through the diagnostic odyssey and want a fresh, structured look, we hope SecondLook can help.

No. SecondLook is not a doctor and not a medical device. It cannot examine you, order tests, or make a diagnosis. What it can do is give you a structured, ranked view of the possibilities the evidence in your story supports — something you take into a conversation with a real clinician, not something that replaces one.

On rare-disease cases from a published research benchmark, SecondLook names the correct diagnosis at position #1 for nearly 1 in 2 patients. For 6 in 10 patients, we either name the diagnosis or point to the single test that would confirm it. For 8 in 10, one of the top 5 tests we recommend would definitively confirm the answer. See the homepage for methodology and comparison to other AI models.

ChatGPT and Claude are single AI models answering a single query. SecondLook is a multi-stage pipeline: fifteen specialist agents debate your case in parallel; each candidate is scored against formal diagnostic criteria from our rare-disease knowledge base; a reconciliation step and critic layer refine the top 10; and every candidate ends with the specific test that would confirm it. On the same rare-disease cases we compared, SecondLook is 30–35% more accurate at position 1 than either single-shot model.

SecondLook is tuned for rare and complex conditions — the kind that often go undiagnosed for years. Our knowledge base includes 9,275 rare-disease profiles across all body systems: genetic syndromes, autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, metabolic disorders, connective-tissue diseases, mitochondrial disorders, endocrine disorders, neurological rare diseases, and many more. It is not built for common conditions where a general symptom checker would do fine.

That’s a real possibility — our current best number is nearly 1 in 2 correct at position #1, which means more than 1 in 2 of the time our top pick is not the final answer. That’s why the report gives you the top 10 possibilities, why each one comes with the test that would confirm or rule it out, and why the whole thing is framed as a conversation-starter with your clinician — not a verdict. If your doctor rules out our top suggestion, our second, third, or fourth may still be worth exploring.

Yes. The text you enter is processed by AI models to generate your report and is stored securely for up to 90 days so we can debug errors and improve the pipeline. We do not sell your data, share it for advertising, or make it accessible outside our team. The full details are in our privacy policy.

SecondLook uses OpenAI and Anthropic (Claude) models under their standard API terms — not their public consumer products. Neither vendor uses API traffic for model training. Your case is processed to generate your report and is not used to train any AI model.

SecondLook is a research preview and is not offered as a HIPAA-covered service. If you enter identifying information that constitutes protected health information under HIPAA, we treat it with the same operational care as we would under HIPAA — but we do not offer BAAs or the formal covered-entity relationship HIPAA requires. If HIPAA coverage matters to your use case, use SecondLook without identifying information (age, sex, symptoms are enough for the analysis; names, addresses, medical-record numbers are not needed).

Yes. Request deletion at any time by emailing us and we’ll remove your case within 7 business days. See the privacy policy for the current contact.

About ten minutes total. Five to seven minutes to answer the intake questions and describe your symptoms; the analysis itself runs in about eight to ten minutes. You can walk away and come back — the report is saved to your session.

No — the written narrative is enough on its own. Uploading lab reports, imaging summaries, or specialist notes gives the analysis more to work with and typically sharpens the ranking, but it’s optional. You can upload PDFs, images (JPG/PNG), markdown, or plain-text files.

Bring them to your next clinical appointment. The report is designed to be a conversation starter with a real clinician: “here are the possibilities I’d like to work through, and here are the tests that would confirm or rule out each one.” Some patients bring the printed report; others summarize the top three candidates and their confirmatory tests. Either works. What SecondLook does not do — and cannot do — is act on the results in your medical care; that’s your clinician’s role.

Yes, and either works. On the Photos & Imaging step you can upload a photograph of a visible finding (rash, eye redness, swelling) or a medical imaging study (X-ray, CT, MRI, ultrasound). SecondLook describes what’s visible in clinical terms and adds it to the case narrative.

Free while we’re in early access — no signup, no login, no card required.

No. Only a licensed clinician can make a diagnosis. SecondLook surfaces possibilities and the tests that would confirm them; the diagnostic act itself belongs to your clinician.

Call your local emergency number or go to an emergency department. SecondLook takes about ten minutes to complete an analysis and is not designed for time-critical decisions.

Only if something about it isn’t sitting right — symptoms it doesn’t explain, a treatment that isn’t working, a family history that suggests something else. If your diagnosis explains the picture and your care plan is working, SecondLook doesn’t add much.