OpenAI Just Made ChatGPT Your Personal Health Assistant

OpenAI is betting big on healthcare with ChatGPT Health, a new dedicated experience that securely connects your medical records, wellness apps, and health data directly to ChatGPT.

The move makes sense when you look at the numbers: More than 230 million people globally already ask ChatGPT health and wellness questions every week, according to OpenAI. This translates to tens of millions of people a day turning to AI for help understanding their bodies, their symptoms, and their care.

Now, OpenAI wants to make those conversations more personal and useful.

To understand what this means for you and your health, as well as healthcare businesses, I spoke with SmarterX and Marketing AI Institute founder and CEO Paul Roetzer on Episode 190 of The Artificial Intelligence Show.

What ChatGPT Health Does

ChatGPT Health lets users securely connect their medical records through the b.well network, one of the largest connected health data networks for U.S. consumers, and sync data from wellness apps like Apple Health, MyFitnessPal, and Function.

Once connected, ChatGPT can help users understand test results, prepare for doctor's appointments, get personalized advice on diet and exercise, and even evaluate insurance options based on their specific healthcare patterns.

The experience lives in its own compartmentalized space within ChatGPT, with separate memories and enhanced privacy protections. Conversations in Health aren't used to train OpenAI's models, and the company emphasizes that health information never flows back into regular ChatGPT chats.

OpenAI developed the feature over two years in collaboration with more than 260 physicians across 60 countries to shape a clinical assessment framework called HealthBench.

Following the Data

For Roetzer, the launch represents a clear case of consumer behavior driving product strategy.

"This is an example of the data telling a company where to go with their product," he says. "I think if you rewind three years ago, this wouldn't have been the market they were going after.”

Roetzer speaks from personal experience. Last year, he found himself in a hospital emergency room dealing with a heart issue, and ChatGPT became an unexpected collaborator throughout the ordeal.

"I took all of my heart rate data from the past six months, and I put it into ChatGPT," he recalls.

He added the circumstances of his health experience and the doctor’s advice, then asked ChatGPT: “What is going on? Can you explain this condition?"

“I basically had ChatGPT write me a simple analysis of what was happening,’’ he says

This helped him develop peace of mind by translating complex medical terminology into something he could understand. And he had a summary he could share with his wife. 

In the emergency room, as doctors came and went, he continued the conversation by uploading pictures of monitors, inputting what physicians told him, and asking what questions he should be asking the doctors.

A Way to Understand the Medical World

What struck Roetzer most wasn't just the personal utility, but also the implications for people without his advantages.

"We are privileged," he says. "You and I have come up in a privileged part of society where we have access to the best medical care. We have family and friends who are doctors or know people. We can get to this information. Even in that environment, this is wildly helpful."

But the real promise, he argues, is for people without those connections.

"Imagine parts of society that don't have that kind of privilege and access that we have,” Roetzer said. “The ability to be able to go in and have that conversation and say, 'Should I get to a doctor or should I not? Am I okay?'"

This pattern has become central to how Roetzer approaches any health situation, whether for himself or family members dealing with confusing diagnoses. He uses ChatGPT to translate complex medical conditions into simple language and to get to answers fast, but then verifies the output with medical professionals .

“This does not replace your doctor,” he says.

Do You Trust Who Gets Your Health Data?

Despite the promise, Roetzer acknowledged a significant hesitation: trusting any company with deeply personal health information.

"Are you willing to give up the data to get the benefit becomes one of the key questions," he says. "And then when everyone is going to be racing to do this, who do you trust with that data?"

For him, the answer isn't necessarily OpenAI. At least not yet.

"The first thing I thought of is I'm probably going to wait for Apple to solve this before I connect all of my apps, because Apple is the place where I trust the most that the data actually stays safe and private and secure," he says.

He notes that if Apple's Siri offered a similar health function, he'd likely opt in immediately, because his Apple Watch, dietary apps, and fitness data are already living in that ecosystem. With OpenAI, he's taking a more cautious approach, keeping his information anonymous even when using the platform's health features.

"I would maybe do it with Google,” he says. “I don't know.”

Anthropic Joins the AI Healthcare Race

OpenAI isn't alone in making healthcare moves. Just days after the ChatGPT Health announcement, Anthropic released Claude for Healthcare, a complementary set of tools allowing healthcare providers, payers, and consumers to use Claude for medical purposes through federal privacy-ready products (HIPAA).

These nearly simultaneous launches by OpenAI and Claude signal that healthcare is becoming a major battleground for AI companies, and that both recognize the massive demand already flowing through their platforms.

Why This Matters

The healthcare system's structural problems are well documented: fragmented records across multiple systems, overworked physicians with limited time per patient, and a reactive rather than preventive model of care. As Fidji Simo, OpenAI's CEO of Applications, noted in her announcement of ChatGPT Health, only 16% of physicians fully exchange and integrate electronic patient information.

AI won't solve these problems overnight, but it can help bridge gaps that currently leave patients confused, overwhelmed, and disconnected from their own health data.

"It's a massive opportunity and it's a needed thing, honestly," says Roetzer, “because it can level up in an equitable way, not just the privileged people. This can actually democratize access to a lot of other people who really need more insights."

The key will be whether AI companies can earn the trust required to handle such sensitive information, and whether they invest in education and awareness to ensure people know these tools exist and are reliable.

"It's a cool opportunity, and I hope a lot of good can come from it," Roetzer says.