Frequently asked questions

It’s an educational tool that uses a general-purpose AI model (Claude) to walk you through brain MRI/CT images, radiology reports, and pathology reports in plain language. The goal is to help you arrive at your doctor’s appointment understanding the terms and ready with better questions — not to diagnose you.

No. This is an orientation and education tool. The AI can miss real findings, hallucinate findings that aren’t there, and misjudge urgency. Every result includes a reminder to share with your clinician. Nothing on the site replaces a qualified radiologist, pathologist, neurologist, neurosurgeon, neuro-oncologist, or pharmacist.

Patients, family members, and caregivers who have just received a scan or a pathology report and feel lost in the terminology. It also works well between appointments — for tracking medications, comparing follow-up scans, and building a case timeline so you walk into each visit oriented.

Yes, at the moment. There is no account, no sign-up, no paywall, and no ads. If that changes we’ll say so clearly on this page before turning anything on.

When you upload, the image or PDF is transmitted to Anthropic (the model provider) to be analyzed. The response comes back and renders in your browser. Neither the images nor the reports are retained on our servers — there is no database of uploads. See the Privacy Policy for the full flow and the legal basis.

Past analyses, your medication tracker, your symptom journal, your appointment-prep details (next visit, custom and dismissed questions), your beyond-treatment view (care-phase choice, surveillance rhythm, and late-effects log), the case timeline, and small thumbnails of your scans live in your browser’s localStorage — never on our servers. Clearing your browser storage, using the “Clear all” buttons on individual pages, or the Clear all data control in Cookie Settings wipes everything.

No. Anthropic’s standard API is not used for training by default, and we don’t opt into any training programs on your behalf.

The site ships with optional analytics that are off until you opt in via the cookie banner. Essential functional storage (your history, preferences) is on by default because the app can’t work without it. Manage everything at Cookie settings.

For on-device data: delete individual entries or click “Clear all” on the History, Medications, or Case timeline pages. For anything that touched our backend (e.g. the optional email-summary feature), email info@gliowise.ai and we’ll act on your request within 30 days.

For scans: JPEG, PNG, or a PDF export of your MRI/CT. For radiology and pathology reports: PDF or an image/screenshot. You can also paste the text of a report directly if that’s easier.

Analyze a scan interprets the imaging — what the AI sees in the MRI or CT, with optional pathology context for nuance. Understand pathology does the opposite: it takes your biopsy report and walks you through tumor type, grade, histology, and every molecular marker (IDH, MGMT, 1p/19q, ATRX, Ki-67, p53, etc.) without looking at any imaging.

At least two time points. Each one can have multiple images (axial, coronal, sagittal) and an optional report. The more complete each time point, the better the trend read.

Upload the scan plus, if you have them, the radiology report and pathology report. Fill in the short context form — treatment stage, diagnosis if known, and your main question. The more context, the sharper the plain-English explanation.

Yes — everything you’ve analyzed is on your Past analyses page. You can also print or save a summary as a PDF from any analysis (email is on the roadmap, not in this release).

The model is a general-purpose vision-and-language model, not a trained radiologist, pathologist, neuro-oncologist, or pharmacist. It will be confidently wrong sometimes — missing a real finding, over-reading a benign one, mis-grading urgency, misreading a pathology report, or missing a drug interaction. Treat each analysis as a starting point for a conversation with your care team, not a verdict.

Three coarse buckets to orient you. “Likely normal” means nothing jumped out at the AI. “Possible abnormality” means something is worth a second look. “Inconclusive” means the image quality, view, or framing didn’t give the model enough to say. None of the three is a diagnosis.

Urgent signals (rapid growth, midline shift, hemorrhage, herniation risk) are surfaced in a red banner. If you see one, contact your clinician the same day — don’t wait for your next appointment. It may be wrong, but it’s worth a phone call.

Yes, it can — and it will, sometimes. That’s a known failure mode of AI. Plain-English summaries are generated text, and the model can invent plausible-sounding measurements or findings that aren’t in the image. Always cross-check with your radiologist’s official report.

On every analysis, a chat panel lets you ask follow-up questions in context. It already knows what the analysis said, so you can ask “what does pseudoprogression mean here?” without re-explaining. Questions and answers are stored with that specific analysis in your browser.

A curated set of common brain-tumor medications (temozolomide, bevacizumab, vorasidenib, steroids, seizure meds, etc.) with plain-English side-effect and call-the-doctor cards. You can also add custom entries for meds outside the curated list.

When you add two or more medications from our curated list, the Medications page shows a small panel that flags well-documented pairings — for example, phenytoin with the newer IDH inhibitors, or valproate’s effect on lamotrigine levels. Each flag comes with a plain-English explanation, what to watch for, and what a care team typically does about it. This is not a clinical interaction checker. The list is intentionally narrow, it only covers drugs in our curated database, and it cannot see over-the-counter medicines, supplements, herbal products, foods, or your full medication history. The absence of a warning is not evidence that a combination is safe. Your pharmacist has the authoritative interaction tools — please check any new combination with them and with your neuro-oncology team.

The check runs entirely inside your browser against a small, hard-coded list that ships with the site. Nothing about your medication list, and nothing about the interactions it flags, is sent to our servers, to Anthropic, or to any third party.

The symptom journal at /symptoms is a simple diary for the days between appointments. Each day you can tap an overall mood (Good / Okay / Rough / Hard), select which symptoms you’re feeling (headache, fatigue, nausea, word-finding, sleep, mood, and so on) with a 0–10 severity, and log seizures with as much or as little detail as you want (type, duration, time of day, aura, after-effects, possible trigger). You get a 14-day at-a-glance strip, an expanded list of recent entries, and a 30-day trends chart with rule-based pattern callouts — for example, “3 seizures in the last 30 days” or “headaches have been more severe this week than the last three.” An Export last 30 days button produces a one-pager you can print or save as a PDF to bring to a clinic visit. Nothing is analyzed by the AI here and nothing is sent to our servers — all entries, trends, and callouts are computed inside your browser, and the export is generated by your browser’s native print-to-PDF feature.

No. It’s a self-reported diary to help you notice patterns and share them with your care team — not a medical device and not a substitute for clinical follow-up. The journal doesn’t detect seizures automatically, doesn’t call for help, and doesn’t replace an epilepsy diary your neurologist may have given you. The red-flag reminders on the page (call your care team if a seizure lasts more than 5 minutes, or if new weakness or sudden severe headache appear) are general educational prompts — always follow your own care team’s instructions over anything the app says.

One horizontal strip with six lanes — scans, procedures, pathology, radiation/chemo treatments, medications, and symptoms — automatically assembled from everything you’ve already entered across the site. It gives you an at-a-glance view of your treatment story.

Not yet — sending a summary by email is on the roadmap for an upcoming release. When it ships, you’ll be able to review the content first, type the recipient yourself, and we won’t retain the email body after sending. For now, the most reliable way to get a summary out of GlioWise is your browser’s “Print” or “Save as PDF” from any analysis page or the pre-appointment prep page.

The prep page at /prep assembles a one-page packet from data you’ve already entered elsewhere on the site — past analyses, the medication tracker, the symptom journal, and the drug-interaction check. It produces a list of suggested questions to bring to your visit, a snapshot of recent activity (latest imaging trend, active medications, top symptoms, recent seizures), and a small form for your next visit’s date, provider, and visit kind. A Save as PDF button uses your browser’s native print feature to render a single, printable page. Nothing is sent anywhere.

No AI is called. Question generation is rule-based and runs entirely in your browser. A small set of deterministic rules looks at what you’ve already entered — for example, a recent imaging trend, an active medication that’s commonly paired with a side-effect concern, or a high-frequency symptom on the journal — and attaches a relevant generic prompt. Treat the suggestions as starting points to discuss, not as a checklist to enforce. Your care team will know which ones actually matter for you.

Yes. The prep page has an input to add custom questions, which sit at the top of the list with the rest, and an × on each generated question to dismiss it. Dismissed questions are remembered per-question — if the same rule fires again on a future visit you won’t see it, but you can use Restore N dismissed to bring them all back. Custom and dismissed questions live in your browser only, under the bsc:appointment:v1 key.

The page at /beyond-treatment is a long-term organizer for the chapter after active treatment ends — when the rhythm of care shifts to periodic surveillance scans, watching for late effects, and managing energy. It has three pieces: a surveillance-rhythm card with your next-MRI countdown and a scanxiety check-in inside the two weeks before a scan; a late-effects monitor where you log observations (cognition, fatigue, hormones, hearing, etc.) with a 0–10 severity and optional notes; and a printable care-plan summary that includes the items you’ve flagged for your next visit. Most useful in the surveillance phase. The view is not a clinical surveillance schedule — always follow what your neuro-oncology team has planned.

The page is built for the chapter after active treatment, so we keep the setup small: one button to Set up my surveillance view, and a smaller Not yet — tuck this away for now link if you’d rather come back later. We deliberately don’t guess your care phase from your timeline data — patients move through these phases in their own way, and the rule “you finished radiation 9 months ago therefore you’re in surveillance” doesn’t always hold (some are on long-term maintenance, some are in re-treatment). Whatever you choose is stored in your browser only, under the bsc:carePhase:v1 key, and you can change it any time using the Currently: … · Change link in the page header.

It’s a small running log of long-term issues you’re keeping an eye on — categories include cognition, fatigue, mood, sleep, hormones (especially after radiation), hearing/vision, weakness/balance, headache, and seizure activity. For each entry you pick a category, slide a severity 0–10, jot an optional note, and optionally Flag for next visit. Flagged items show up front-and-centre on the printable care-plan summary. None of this is medical advice or a clinical assessment — it’s a patient-prepared organizer to bring to your team. Long-term effects can show up months or years after treatment, and even “small” observations are worth flagging.

The same way the symptom-journal export and pre-appointment prep packets are generated: with your browser’s built-in Print dialog. The page hides its on-screen chrome under a print stylesheet and renders a tightened, doctor-ready summary instead. Choose “Save as PDF” as the destination from your print dialog — nothing is uploaded to us. The PDF includes your surveillance plan, your flagged late-effects, and a few standing reminders.

Current versions of Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge. Mobile Safari and Chrome on Android work too. If you’re on a very old browser, localStorage or PDF preview may misbehave.

Retry once — transient model errors happen. If the scan is very large, try converting to JPG and resizing to ~2000px on the long side. If the error persists or mentions “invalid JSON,” email info@gliowise.ai with a screenshot — we read every report.

History lives in your browser’s localStorage. Clearing browser data, switching to a different browser or device, or using private/incognito mode will make past analyses look gone. They’re not recoverable because we never had them on our end.

Email info@gliowise.ai. Include a screenshot if you can, and the browser + OS you’re on.