Already, millions of people utilize ChatGPT to pose questions regarding their health. In fact, OpenAI has previously stated that it is one of the most prevalent use cases for its popular chatbot. Some individuals upload blood test results, medical scans, and other highly personal data.
Currently, OpenAI is capitalizing on this trend as it endeavors to develop more products to maintain user engagement and position itself as the new digital interface that will facilitate interactions between diverse industry sectors—ranging from e-commerce to finance to, indeed, wellness and healthcare—and their customers.
Today, OpenAI announced the launch of ChatGPT Health—a dedicated experience within ChatGPT where it claims users can securely link medical records and wellness apps such as Health, Function, and MyFitnessPal to further customize conversations. OpenAI stated that it would not train its models on personal medical data.
During a press preview, Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of applications, introduced ChatGPT Health by sharing a personal anecdote about how ChatGPT assisted her after she was hospitalized for a kidney stone last year and developed an infection. A resident had prescribed a standard antibiotic, but she verified it against her medical history in ChatGPT, which flagged that the medication could reactivate a severe life-threatening infection she had endured years prior.
“The resident was relieved that I spoke up. She informed me that she only has a few minutes per patient during rounds, and that health records are not organized in a manner that makes it easy to view,” she said. “I’ve heard numerous stories like this from people who are using AI to help connect the dots in their healthcare system, which really wasn’t designed to see the complete picture.”
Five months ago, OpenAI signaled its entry into healthcare with two high-profile hires: Nate Gross, the co-founder and former chief strategy officer of Doximity, a leading digital platform for medical professionals, leads OpenAI’s healthcare strategy. Ashley Alexander, former co-head of product at, leads healthcare product. However, Karan Singhal, who heads health AI at OpenAI, said during the press preview that the company had been laying the groundwork for ChatGPT Health for approximately two years.
According to an OpenAI blog post, the company analyzed deidentified ChatGPT conversations and discovered that over 230 million people globally pose health- and wellness-related questions on ChatGPT every week. Even with such a vast user base, though, that doesn’t imply the company has an easy path ahead: They are joining a rapidly evolving race among Big Tech and startups to become the AI front door for consumer healthcare.
For instance, for ChatGPT Health, OpenAI has partnered with b.well, a health management platform that combines patients’ health records, financial information, and wearable and other healthcare data. But also announced a partnership with b.well in October 2025—potentially setting the stage for future AI-driven consumer health tools, although the internet giant has not yet announced a health-specific feature set for its AI chatbot product Gemini.
ChatGPT Health will not be immediately available to the general public. There is a waitlist for access to a small group of early users, but the company said it will make Health accessible to all users on the web and iOS in the coming weeks. Electronic Health Records (EHR) integrations and some apps are available only in the U.S.
OpenAI does not describe ChatGPT Health as HIPAA compliant (consumer health apps are not covered by HIPAA) but states that it adds layered safeguards for sensitive health data and excludes health conversations from model training by default. It also says users can enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) to add an additional layer of protection to prevent unauthorized access, and that access to medical records can be revoked at any time in the “Apps” section of Settings.
ChatGPT Health also aligns with a broader pattern at OpenAI: constructing vertical-specific experiences atop its core models, rather than relying solely on general-purpose chat. In education, the company launched Study Mode, a ChatGPT spinoff for students, in July to compete with Google’s Gemini for Education. It has also rolled out agentic shopping and shopping research features. There are also reports that a finance-specific experience is in development.
OpenAI also clarified that ChatGPT Health was not part of the company’s announced in early December by Sam Altman in an internal memo. “[ChatGPT Health is] actually outside of Code Red,” said Simo. “We have been working on health for a long time… we know this is a core use case of ChatGPT, and we’ve known that we wanted to enhance that use case and meet even more of people’s needs with the changes we’ve made.”