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ZDNET's key takeaways
- ChatGPT Health and Claude for Healthcare both debuted last week.
- Google's MedGemma 1.5 model was introduced shortly thereafter.
- They all signal the growing presence of AI within healthcare.
Three of the world's leading AI labs have kicked off the new year with the launch of healthcare-oriented products.
Their functions vary, but they all point in the same direction: a world in which patients, payers, and providers increasingly rely on artificial intelligence to accelerate certain critical operations and democratize access to key benefits. It's still early days for AI-powered healthcare, and the lack of federal oversight means there's very little accountability if the technology acts in unexpected and dangerous ways. But the three new products give us a glimpse of what's likely to become the new normal.
Also: What the nation's strongest AI regulations change in 2026, according to legal experts
Here's an overview of each new tool, how they work, and who can currently access them.
ChatGPT for Health and Claude for Healthcare
On January 7, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Health, a feature within the chatbot that enables users to upload health records from apps like Apple Health and Function, and receive personalized medical advice.
In a blog post, OpenAI wrote that the new health function "was developed in close collaboration with physicians around the world to provide clear and useful health information." It's currently being tested by a small group of early users and will be made generally available on the web and iOS in the coming weeks, according to Axios. You can also sign up via a waitlist to gain access.
Also: 7 ways health tech promises to improve your life in 2026
Four days later, Anthropic launched a similar feature, Claude for Healthcare, which allows Pro and Max subscribers in the US to upload personal health records via built-in connectors to health apps.
"When connected, Claude can summarize users' medical history, explain test results in plain language, detect patterns across fitness and health metrics, and prepare questions for appointments," Anthropic wrote in its announcement. "The aim is to make patients' conversations with doctors more productive, and to help users stay well-informed about their health."
Claude for Healthcare also offers connectors and skills for payers and providers. Physicians, for example, can use it to speed up the process -- known as prior authorization -- of checking with an insurer to confirm that a given treatment or medication will be covered under a patient's plan. Healthcare organizations can access Claude for Healthcare now through Claude for Enterprise and the Claude Developer Platform.
Both OpenAI and Anthropic said in their announcements that users' health data will not be used to train new models, and that the new tools are not intended to serve as a substitute for direct, in-person treatment. "Health is designed to support, not replace, medical care," OpenAI wrote in its blog post.
Also: 40 million people globally are using ChatGPT for healthcare - but is it safe?
ChatGPT Health and Claude for Healthcare are similar enough to be considered direct competitors at a time when healthcare, compared to other industries, has been rapidly adopting AI tools.
On the user side, huge numbers of people have been using popular AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Microsoft's Copilot for advice regarding health insurance, whether they should be concerned about a particular set of symptoms, and other highly personal health-related topics.
MedGemma 1.5
On January 13, Google announced the release of MedGemma 1.5, the latest of its MedGemma family of foundation models designed to help developers build apps that can analyze medical text and imagery.
Also: Use Google AI Overview for health advice? It's 'really dangerous,' investigation finds
Unlike ChatGPT Health and Claude for Healthcare, MedGemma 1.5 isn't a standalone, consumer-facing tool; yet it can still be seen as part of the AI industry's race to strengthen its foothold in the health industry.
MedGemma is a freely accessible model available via Hugging Face and Vertex AI.
Concerns
As developers readily admit, AI chatbots are still very much prone to hallucination -- making up falsehoods and presenting them as facts. That obviously presents serious risks when someone is chatting with ChatGPT or Claude about their personal health concerns, which is why OpenAI and Anthropic have issued caveats that their new features should only be used as a supplement to, not a replacement for, actual healthcare providers.
Data privacy is another common -- and justified -- concern when it comes to sharing personal health records with AI systems. OpenAI and Anthropic appear to have anticipated that concern; both companies emphasize that their new features are built to maximize privacy.
Also: Are AI health coach subscriptions a scam? My verdict after testing Fitbit's for a month
Claude for Healthcare users, for example, can control which health data gets shared with the chatbot. Also, the sharing feature is turned off by default.
OpenAI added in its blog post that while the new Health feature in ChatGPT may reference relevant details from non-health-related chats, such as a recent move, health-related conversations will always stay within that dedicated space. In other words, the chatbot won't be able to draw upon those conversations when you're discussing an unrelated subject. You can also view and modify the chatbot's memories within the Health tab or in the Personalization section in Settings.
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