Case study · Healthcare · United States
When a local patient asks AI for the best brain surgeon, it now answers with one name.
In just under three months, a specialist neurosurgery practice went from page four of Google to being the practice ChatGPT recommends first when people ask who to trust with a brain aneurysm, a tumour, or a second opinion in its city.
Patients are asking AI who to trust. It points them here.
More and more people start a serious health decision by asking an AI assistant, not a search box. When someone in the practice's area asks ChatGPT who the best brain surgeon, neurovascular surgeon, or aneurysm specialist is, the practice and its lead clinician now come up as a top recommendation.
Below are six of the highest-intent questions a patient could ask. In June 2026, the practice was named in every one.
For brain aneurysms, you generally want a cerebrovascular specialist. In the [city] area, these would be among the strongest options:
– led by . Their practice specifically emphasises aneurysms, cerebrovascular disease, and minimally invasive procedures, with a dedicated focus on aneurysm care.
For overall reputation and complex brain cases around [city], this is among the strongest options:
– often sought for complex cerebrovascular and brain conditions, including aneurysms, stroke-related issues, and second opinions.
My strongest local shortlist would be:
– the practice specifically focuses on cerebrovascular neurosurgery: brain aneurysms, AVMs, vascular narrowing, and stroke-related conditions.
I'd put these near the top of the list in and around [city]:
– they explicitly offer brain tumour evaluations and second-opinion reviews, with listed for tumour assessment.
A few names consistently stand out around [city]. Among the strongest:
– often highlighted for cerebrovascular and complex neurosurgical work, including aneurysms and brain-related conditions, through , which focuses on complex brain and vascular neurosurgery.
A few names repeatedly come up around [city], based on experience, patient reviews and local presence:
– often noted for cerebrovascular and complex neurosurgical work, through .
Not just a screenshot. A traceable, verified link.
Take that last question. Asked as "best neurosurgeon [their city]," on 28 June 2026 our automated visibility monitor independently caught ChatGPT answering it with a link to the practice's own website as one of its sources, carrying the utm_source=openai tag. That openai tag is the marker ChatGPT adds to the links it cites.
In other words, ChatGPT is not only naming the practice. It is citing the practice's own website as the evidence.
Why an AI engine names a practice.
AI assistants do not invent their recommendations. They read the open web, weigh which sources are clear, structured, and trustworthy, then repeat what they can stand behind. A practice that is hard for a machine to read simply does not get quoted.
Over the first three months we rebuilt the site to be unmistakably readable, both to Google and to AI engines. More than 270 individual changes shipped live, concentrated on the things that make a page quotable: plain-language answer blocks for the questions patients actually ask, structured data that tells a machine exactly who the lead clinician is and what the practice treats, and explicit permission for AI crawlers to read and cite the site.
270+ changes shipped
On-page and technical changes applied and live in the first three months, from titles and descriptions to internal links and image handling.
130+ structured-data and answer blocks
FAQ, entity and medical schema plus direct answer blocks, so an AI engine can read exactly who treats what, and quote it cleanly.
40+ AI-access changes
An llms.txt file, AI-crawler permissions and an AI sitemap that invite ChatGPT, Perplexity and others to read and cite the practice.
On page one for the searches that bring patients.
Answer-engine visibility and classic search visibility are built on the same foundation, so the work paid off in Google too. For the non-brand searches that actually bring patients through the door, people looking for a neurosurgeon, not for the practice by name, the practice now ranks on the first page of Google.
Underneath that, the whole site climbed every month of the campaign's first quarter, from page four up into page two by June.
Page one for the searches that actually bring patients
Six local searches for a neurosurgeon or brain surgeon, including "neurosurgeon near me", averaged between position 2.7 and 7.4 on Google. All six are on page one.
Average position, Google Search Console, June 2026. These are non-brand, high-intent searches: people looking for a neurosurgeon, not for the practice by name. The site-wide average sits at the top of page two because it is pulled down by a long tail of low-intent impressions. The searches that bring in patients are already page one. The exact searches are not listed, so the practice stays unnamed.
How Brain Buddy AI works
Be the answer, on Google and inside the AI.
Brain Buddy AI is a search and answer-engine visibility partner. We combine traditional search optimisation with answer-engine and generative-engine optimisation, so a business is found by the right people whether they search on Google or ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google's AI Overviews.
Make it machine-readable
Answer blocks, structured data and AI-crawler access that let an engine read exactly who you are and what you do, then quote it.
Earn the recommendation
Clear, factual, well-organised content on the questions your customers ask, so the AI can stand behind naming you.
Measure where it counts
We track real AI citations and Google position together, with verifiable referrals, not vanity numbers.
Your move
Want to see where your business stands in AI search?
We run a free AI visibility check across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and more, then show you exactly what to fix.
About these figures
The Google figures in this case study are drawn from the practice's own Google Search Console account, accessed with its permission and pulled on 30 June 2026, and describe past performance over the periods shown. They are not a prediction or a guarantee of future results, and search performance depends on many factors outside any agency's control.
The ChatGPT responses shown are reproductions of real answers observed in June 2026, recorded by screenshot and independently corroborated by Brain Buddy's visibility monitoring on 28 June 2026. AI assistants generate answers that vary between sessions and change over time, so these responses are illustrative of results achieved, not a guarantee that any engine will return the same answer. The wording on each card is condensed from the response observed. Names, places and links are withheld, and each question is shown by its category.
Published with the client's permission; name withheld.
Nothing here is a clinical endorsement or a statement about medical quality or outcomes. Where an AI engine describes a clinician or practice as a strong or leading option, that is the AI engine's characterisation, reported as observed. This is a study of search and answer-engine visibility only.