AI giants enter the healthcare space

Both OpenAI and Anthropic have officially entered the healthcare AI space with dedicated products aimed at helping people and professionals interact with medical information using large language models.

OpenAI recently launched its ChatGPT Health feature, and shortly after, Anthropic announced Claude for Healthcare, signaling a growing AI race into healthcare technology.

ChatGPT Health is a health-focused extension of ChatGPT that lets users link their medical records and wellness app data (like Apple Health, MyFitnessPal, Function, etc.) to get personalized summaries, explanations, and guidance about their health.

It lives in a dedicated “Health” space that’s designed with extra privacy protections, health data is kept separate and isn’t used to train the underlying AI model.

Claude for Healthcare is Anthropic’s healthcare-oriented AI product built on its Claude model. It enables users (patients, clinicians, insurers, healthcare systems) to securely connect health data and medical records, analyze medical information, and support both administrative workflows and clinical questions.

It also includes integrations with health and scientific platforms and tools used in clinical and research settings, such as clinical trial databases and medical coding standards.

OpenAI focuses on consumer health and personalized answers, while Anthropic targets healthcare professionals and the broader system.

Compare to OpenAI, Claude offers HIPAA ready infrastructure, aligning with U.S. healthcare data standards for handling protected health information securely.

In the recent OpenAI report, more than 40 million weekly annual users prompt about healthcare everyday. More than 5% ChatGPT messages are related to healthcare.

Separating health-related queries from regular daily queries can help companies deliver a more personalized experience, resulting in higher user engagement and retention on the platform.