ChatGPT Health rolls out to all US adults, reading medical records amid lawsuit controversy

ChatGPT Health Arrives for All US Users, Reads Your Medical and Fitness Data

With over a decade of experience reporting on consumer technology, James covers mobile phones, apps, operating systems, wearables, AI, and more. ChatGPT Health is officially here for all signed-in US users, allowing users to share their medical records and health data to better inform chatbot responses. OpenAI says over 300 million people ask ChatGPT health-related questions every week, so these tools are built to offer more informed, personalized AI-based advice by learning as much as possible about you and your health. The brand says, "With your permission, ChatGPT can consider relevant information you have connected, such as medications, lab results, recent visits, sleep, and activity, alongside the goals and context you share." While you can share this data to ask questions about your medical records and conditions, and to break down your latest results, OpenAI also focuses on how additional information shapes its everyday responses. One example shows how sharing a dietary restriction will then inform recipe ideas whenever you discuss what to cook. Apple Health is the primary fitness provider used, with OpenAI yet to comment on support for alternatives like Google Health. There are also integrations with MyFitnessPal, Peloton, Weight Watchers, and more. Medical records come from US hospital systems or providers like One Medical and Function Health. You can connect a service by heading to the sidebar in ChatGPT and selecting Health > Get started. OpenAI says syncing data may take a few minutes, and you can then review and update your results, such as removing irrelevant medications or conditions, or adding in missing data. The chatbot will ask for permission to use your health data in any responses, but it's accessible through all conversations with ChatGPT. If a response may benefit from using health data, ChatGPT will suggest three options: Allow once, Always allow, or Deny. OpenAI says health data is handled with "additional encryption protections," and any information uploaded won't be used to train its foundation models or target ads. It also says you can disconnect your information at any time, and it will be deleted from OpenAI's records within 30 days. You can get this feature now on any ChatGPT account, as long as you're logged in, older than 18, and based in the US. This rollout comes at a time when ChatGPT's medical advice is under greater scrutiny than ever, with OpenAI facing lawsuits alleging incorrect information provided by its tools. On Wednesday, a man in Florida sued OpenAI for "extremely dangerous medical recommendations" when using OpenAI's earlier GPT-4o model. According to the New York Times, the plaintiff says ChatGPT assured him he didn't need to seek medical advice when discussing the early signs of what turned out to be a pulmonary embolism. ChatGPT's response reportedly told him, "God did not design your body to endlessly fail." Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

ChatGPT wants access to your health records so it can be a better not-doctor

OpenAI is expanding its healthcare footprint by encouraging users to connect Apple Health data and supported medical records to ChatGPT - one day after a user sued the company, alleging the chatbot's medical advice nearly killed him. Health in ChatGPT, as the new feature is called, allows eligible users to connect ChatGPT to Apple's Health app in iOS, giving the chatbot access to health information users choose to share, including medical records, sleep, activity, and other data stored in the app. For those unfamiliar with Apple's Health app, it's a health dashboard that collects data from an iPhone, Apple Watch, and compatible health and fitness apps, while also allowing users to add personal health information such as medications, allergies, and medical conditions. Connecting ChatGPT to the app, says OpenAI, gives the chatbot additional context for health-related conversations, allowing it to provide more personalized responses based on a user's health information. "With your permission, ChatGPT can consider relevant information you have connected, such as medications, lab results, recent visits, sleep, and activity, alongside the goals and context you share," OpenAI said in its announcement. According to the company, the integration of health information into general ChatGPT chats comes after testing a dedicated Health experience in ChatGPT earlier this year that it found users often bypassed, instead conducting more than 70 percent of their health-related conversations outside the dedicated health space. Did no one think of the timing? OpenAI said that it won't use connected health data to train its foundation models or serve ads. Beyond those privacy concerns, however, there are some serious reasons to be skeptical of the Health in ChatGPT rollout. Take, for example, the fact that OpenAI was sued on Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court by a Florida man, who alleges ChatGPT gave him "extremely dangerous medical recommendations" that discouraged him from seeking medical care as his pulmonary embolism worsened. Later hospitalized, the plaintiff claims he now faces years of intensive physical and psychological recovery after the chatbot allegedly repeatedly reassured him that his symptoms were not serious and urged him to remain at home. An OpenAI spokesperson told The New York Times that ChatGPT's terms of service make clear it is not intended for medical diagnosis or treatment. The spokesperson also told the newspaper that the company's models have improved since the incident at the heart of the lawsuit - a point OpenAI reiterated to The Register. Similarly, the Health in ChatGPT announcement notes that it can still make mistakes and shouldn't replace qualified medical professionals, even though OpenAI says it worked with hundreds of physicians to test the feature for performance and safety. "ChatGPT is not a doctor and should never be used as a substitute for medical care, diagnosis, or treatment," an OpenAI spokesperson told The Register in an email. "Treating chatbots as the whole story behind people's medical decisions or outcomes oversimplifies a much bigger challenge, and risks getting in the way of people accessing powerful new tools that can aid them in their health journey." The inclusion of medical records in ChatGPT's contextual data may help prevent some instances of bad advice (that plaintiff's data may have included prior treatment that suggested increased risk for pulmonary embolism, for example), but that still won't stop ChatGPT from simply being wrong. We've published multiple stories in recent months about AI's lack of accuracy being a major hurdle for medicine. One study earlier this year found that AI chatbots were no better at helping people make health decisions than conventional online resources, including search engines. Another study we covered found that LLMs failed at early differential diagnosis in more than 80 percent of cases. In Canada, the Auditor General of Ontario found that AI note-taking systems used by doctors routinely introduced medication errors into patient notes, omitted critical details, inserted incorrect information, and hallucinated things that neither patients nor clinicians brought up during appointments. In other words, whether or not it's armed with a patient's data, involving an AI in healthcare decisions or advice sure seems like a bad idea. "We use dedicated training to improve the models behind health conversations in ChatGPT," OpenAI said, noting that its models have made "meaningful gains in recognizing when urgent care may be needed, asking for relevant context, explaining uncertainty, and making complex information easier to understand." We're told OpenAI has trained its models to address uncertainty in health queries when information is incomplete rather than just making up an answer. Whether that's enough to make it safe and reliable will ultimately be up to users to decide. For those determined to put their wellness in the hands of a company defending a lawsuit alleging ChatGPT dispensed dangerous medical advice, Health in ChatGPT is rolling out now to logged-in iOS and web users aged 18 and older in the US on Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans. ®

ChatGPT Health is rolling out widely, but Android users won't be too happy

It currently supports Apple Health and some US hospital systems, but support for Google Health is missing. Earlier this year, ChatGPT announced a new Health feature that lets users connect their health data to the platform and receive medical advice based on it. Back then, the feature was locked behind a waitlist, but the company is now rolling it out more widely. OpenAI has announced that it's bringing ChatGPT Health to everyone in the US aged 18 or older. It will be available on the web as well as on the ChatGPT mobile apps on Android and iOS, and ChatGPT is using its latest GPT-5.5 Instant and GPT-5.6 Sol models for medical queries. Users will be able to ask ChatGPT for medical help and advice, including comparing test results with prior tests. ChatGPT Health will also help users analyze their sleep, workout, and activity data to answer questions about their routines. The company will also offer users the option to access their health data outside the dedicated Health feature. If enabled, ChatGPT will be able to access their health records and information during normal conversations to offer more customized responses when required. For example, during a meal-prep conversation, the AI will review the user's lab results and health data to offer advice on which ingredients to avoid. It will also consider a user's health data when offering recommendations for restaurants, activities, and more. OpenAI says that its models are performing extremely well in health-related scenarios. The company said that it worked with physicians and had them extensively test its Health feature before release. However, it's worth noting that OpenAI was recently sued after ChatGPT allegedly offered "extremely dangerous medical recommendations" to a user, leading to a delay in medical attention for a pulmonary embolism they suffered last year. ChatGPT Health draws on a user's health data from connected sources such as Apple Health. The service also supports One Medical, Function Health, and supported medical records from US hospital systems. However, there's no mention of Google Health support at the moment. We have reached out to OpenAI, asking if (and when) Google Health support will be added. We will update this article when we hear back.

ChatGPT Health rolls out to every US adult

OpenAI is rolling out ChatGPT Health to every US adult, letting the chatbot draw on your Apple Health data and medical records inside any conversation. It claims its models now reason "better than clinician level", a line its own health lead immediately softened. And it arrives days after a man sued OpenAI over medical advice he says nearly killed him. OpenAI wants to be in the room for your next diagnosis. On Thursday it began rolling out ChatGPT Health to every logged-in US adult. The chatbot can now connect to your Apple Health data and medical records, the company said. It can then draw on them in any conversation. More than 300 million people already ask ChatGPT health questions each week. Now it wants their lab results, medications and visit notes too. The pitch came with a bold claim. OpenAI's vice-president of health product, Ashley Alexander, made it plainly. Its models "are now capable of reasoning at levels that are better than clinician level," she said, per The Verge. Pressed on it, the company's health lead Karan Singhal quickly softened the line. He would "temper" that, he said, though "individual studies" pointed that way. The headline claim did not survive the first follow-up question. What it does The feature moves health out of a side tab and into the main chat. OpenAI tested a dedicated health space earlier this year, but more than 70% of health chats happened outside it, so it merged the two. Connect Apple Health, One Medical, Function Health or a supported US hospital system. ChatGPT can then compare a new lab result with old ones. It can summarise what changed since your last visit, or weigh a dietary restriction when suggesting a recipe. It asks permission before using the data. Free users get GPT-5.5 Instant. Paying users get GPT-5.6 Sol, which OpenAI calls its "strongest model yet for health". OpenAI leaned hard on privacy. Connected records, Apple Health data and the chats that use them are not used to train its models or target ads, it said, whatever your other settings. Everything is encrypted, you can revoke access, and disconnected data is deleted within 30 days. Even so, handing a chatbot your medical history is a leap. Critics see where it leads. "The interesting thing to me is the surveillance ratchet," one wrote, imagining an AI that wants a camera, a microphone, and eventually your pheromones. Awkward timing The launch could hardly be worse timed. Days earlier, a Florida pastor sued OpenAI, claiming ChatGPT gave him "extremely dangerous medical recommendations" that led him to delay care for a near-fatal pulmonary embolism. OpenAI's own disclaimer concedes the bot "can still make mistakes" and does not replace a doctor. Its heavy reliance on Apple Health is awkward, too, given OpenAI is fighting Apple in court over trade secrets. None of this is slowing the march of AI into medicine, from note-taking to diagnosis. The upside is real. People juggling scattered records and overlapping conditions may finally see the whole picture. The risk is just as real. A confident chatbot, trusted with the most sensitive data there is, is right most of the time and wrong when it matters most. OpenAI says its models keep improving. In the same breath, it says to check anything important with a real doctor.

I gave ChatGPT my medical records. It was less scary -- and more useful -- than expected

While useful for medical explanations, the author found ChatGPT Health interesting but not essential, with lingering privacy concerns about chat history retention. For obvious reasons, allowing ChatGPT to give medical advice is fraught with controversy. Is it really a good idea to trust a large language model with our health? What if it hallucinates, or misdiagnoses clear warning signs (as a just-filed lawsuit alleges)? And can we trust AI chatbots with our private medical data? Those are all good causes for concern, but they're not stopping OpenAI from rolling out ChatGPT's new health-oriented features to all U.S. users. First introduced earlier this year, ChatGPT Health can -- with your permission -- tap into a variety of medical data sources, ranging from telemetry from the Apple Health app to records from your doctor, and (as OpenAI carefully words it) help you "understand your information in context." Now, it just so happens that hours before OpenAI announced its broader ChatGPT Health rollout, I had my annual physical. It was a routine visit (no major problems, phew!), and I'm lucky to have a general practitioner who's friendly, down to earth, and clear about his findings. Among his directives: watch my diet, exercise more, and cut back on the cocktails. (Oh, c'mon, Doc!) Normally, I wouldn't feel the need to feed my checkup details to an AI chatbot; generally speaking, I only like knowing what I need to know about my various health conditions. But this is PCWorld, and I cover AI for a living, so I took a deep breath and agreed to let ChatGPT check my chart. Just to be clear, right up front: This isn't a full review, and I am in no way suggesting you try ChatGPT Health yourself unless you really want to. While the service uses a secure portal for linking medical records to ChatGPT and permissions controls abound, I believe there are still plenty of privacy concerns, and by no means should ChatGPT's musings be confused with the diagnosis of a doctor (as OpenAI is quick to say). The only reason I'm wading into ChatGPT Health is so you can sneak a peek at my experience. With that lengthy preamble, I'll start with the nuts and bolts. Navigating to the "Health" menu item in the ChatGPT sidebar (iOS and web only for now, and again, just for U.S. users), a connection wizard guided me through the options, including connecting Apple Health and my healthcare provider. For each health source you connect, you must decide precisely which data you'd like to share, and the options are quite granular. With Apple Health, for example, you could choose to share your daily steps but not your stand minutes, or pick your heart rate but exclude heart rate variability. The same goes with your health provider; mine, for instance, had individual check-off sections for allergies, care plans and clinical notes, and demographic information, for starters. You can also choose how long you want ChatGPT to have access to your medical data: anywhere from a day to a year. Next, ChatGPT Health will follow up with more options, including adding medications and family history details, as well as any current medical conditions you're experiencing. With the updated ChatGPT Health, you don't have to visit the Health section in the ChatGPT app to discuss your vitals (although you still can if you want to). Instead, ChatGPT can access your health data from any chat. Ask ChatGPT a health question, and a permissions pop-up will appear, with options for "Allow Once," "Always Allow," or "Deny." If you choose "Allow Once" (as I did), ChatGPT will ping you for permission for subsequent healthcare-related chats. In my first conversations with ChatGPT Health, I asked some general questions based on my Apple Health data, including whether it spotted any trends over the past 12 months. We had several back-and-forths about the raw data ChatGPT had access to and the possible types of reports it could compile; indeed, ChatGPT seemed almost timid here, and I had to nudge it ("OK, can you do the annual health review?") to get its assessment. When it finally did come, ChatGPT's summary was interesting if (to me) not all that surprising: "Your year looks stable overall, with several modest improvements toward the end." It singled out my lower resting heart rate, higher HRV (a signal for overall cardiovascular health), my faster walking speed, and more frequent exercise over the past year. But I also got dinged for my sleep patterns: not enough, in a nutshell, although my oxygen saturation has been trending up. Next, I moved on to my recent physical. What did all those test results popping in MyChart mean, anyway (and what's up with the one in the yellow range)? What's a lymphocyte count, and why is mine a tad low? And how am I doing overall? Of course, I already knew the answer to most of these questions, courtesy of my flesh-and-blood doctor (nothing to worry about with this, let's keep an eye on that). But I do have to say, ChatGPT did a nice job of filling in some of the details and reminding me of others, like the fact that I need a pneumonia vaccine, or that my LDL levels (for "bad" cholesterol) are slightly elevated. "Eat with heart health in mind," ChatGPT said, mirroring my doctor's advice. Indeed, all of ChatGPT's observations were grounded in my doctor's written assessment plan -- which, I'm sure, is the whole idea behind ChatGPT Health. Nothing I saw in my ChatGPT Health chats was surprising or shocking; instead, it just (as promised) gave me more context, including explanations of medical terminology that I heard my doctor use but hadn't thought to ask about. Now, I should point out that while I can revoke ChatGPT's permission to access my health data at any time, my chats with ChatGPT about my health will remain unless I delete them manually, meaning you'd have to be scrupulously about pruning your past conversations to wipe your medical details completely from the chatbot's memory. (You could, of course, restrict health-related chats to temporary conversations that are immediately deleted once closed.) Overall, I'd call my (brief) experience with ChatGPT Health to be interesting but not all that essential. I should note that I didn't spot anything all that dubious, with most of its judgement calls and observations quickly followed by "check with your doctor" hedging. And ChatGPT did remind me of that pneumonia shot I'm supposed to take, so that goes in the "plus" column. But would I turn to ChatGPT if I were facing a serious medical condition? Frankly, I'd be more comfortable turning to a physician first. (Then again, my doctor did use an AI note-taking app during my exam, so...)

ChatGPT can now connect to your Apple Health data to give more personalized health answers

OpenAI brings personalized health conversations to ChatGPT OpenAI is expanding ChatGPT into a new category with the launch of Health in ChatGPT, a feature that allows users to securely connect health information from Apple Health and supported medical records. The feature is rolling out to users in the United States and is designed to help people ask health-related questions with more personalized context, instead of relying on isolated conversations. According to OpenAI, more than 300 million people use ChatGPT every week for health-related queries, ranging from understanding lab reports to preparing for doctor appointments. Recommended Videos The company says one of the biggest challenges is that health information is often scattered across patient portals, wearable devices, hospital records and fitness apps, making it difficult for users to get a complete picture of their health. The new feature aims to bring that information together inside ChatGPT while keeping users in control of what data is shared and when it can be accessed. The launch marks one of OpenAI's biggest moves into consumer health, an area where AI companies have been increasingly positioning their assistants as tools that can help users better understand medical information rather than replace professional healthcare. Apple Health integration and user-controlled permissions Health in ChatGPT allows users to connect Apple Health and supported medical records to their conversations. Once connected, ChatGPT can reference that information when answering questions, helping users understand changes in their health, review medications, or discuss information from recent medical visits. Users can also update their health profile by adding conditions, medications and family medical history directly within ChatGPT. OpenAI says the experience is built around user control. ChatGPT asks for permission before using health information in conversations, and users can choose to allow access once, always grant permission, or disable it altogether through the Health settings. The company also notes that connected health information may not always be complete or current, encouraging users to verify important details against their original medical records. The feature also works with wearable devices and third-party fitness or nutrition apps that sync data with Apple Health. As long as those apps share information with Apple's health platform, ChatGPT can use the available data to provide more contextual responses, although OpenAI notes that some proprietary scores may not transfer between services. OpenAI is pushing ChatGPT beyond conversations. The announcement reflects a broader shift in how AI assistants are evolving. Rather than functioning solely as chatbots that respond to prompts, companies are increasingly connecting AI systems to personal data sources so they can provide more relevant assistance. Health is one of the most sensitive examples of that approach, making user consent and transparency central to the experience. OpenAI positions Health in ChatGPT as a way to help users better understand their own health information, not as a replacement for doctors or medical advice. By combining wearable data, medical records, and conversational AI in one place, the company is betting that future AI assistants will become increasingly useful because they understand more of a user's personal context, rather than simply answering questions in isolation.

ChatGPT now has a space for sharing medical records. Should you?

Lauren Fichten is a journalist at CBS News covering artificial intelligence, digital safety and online extremism. She joined CBS News after graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill and was previously an associate producer at the CBS News National Desk. Hundreds of millions of people a week turn to ChatGPT for health advice, and now the platform has a dedicated space for those users. This week, OpenAI rolled out Health in ChatGPT, where users can upload medical records such as lab results and medications, and connect Apple Health to allow the platform access to health and fitness data. "With your permission, ChatGPT can now draw on relevant information you've connected in Health to help you compare a new result with prior tests, summarize changes since your last appointment, or explore how sleep, activity, and workouts relate to your routine," OpenAI said Thursday in a news release. OpenAI says 300 million people already turn to ChatGPT with health-related questions weekly -- something that Tanzeem Choudhury, the chief of health innovation at Cornell Tech, says is reflective of the state of healthcare in the U.S. "Our healthcare is broken," Choudhury told CBS News. "I think that's why we are seeing so many people asking for advice." Choudhury, who has been working at the intersection of artificial intelligence and health for more than 15 years, said AI can be a democratizing force in healthcare at a time when many Americans face barriers to access, but that "we just need to think about the risks and have better protections in place." Choudhury said users turning to AI for health information need to understand the risks and trade-offs associated with sharing personal data with a large language model such as ChatGPT. AI can hallucinate and give misleading, inaccurate or even dangerous medical advice. This week, a Florida man alleged in a lawsuit that ChatGPT's medical advice nearly led to his death after experiencing a pulmonary embolism. An OpenAI spokesperson told CBS News that "ChatGPT is not a doctor and should never be used as a substitute for medical care, diagnosis or treatment." A few months ago, a California teenager died after ChatGPT told him it was safe to consume what turned out to be a fatal concoction of substances. OpenAI said in a statement to CBS News at the time that "this is a heartbreaking situation, and our thoughts are with the family," and said that version of ChatGPT is no longer available to the public. In its statement Thursday announcing Health in ChatGPT, OpenAI said ChatGPT can make mistakes and "does not replace the care and judgment of qualified medical professionals." CBS News has reached out to OpenAI for comment, and asked whether ChatGPT is equipped to recognize when to advise a user to seek help from a medical professional. As it currently stands, Choudhury said, the onus is on the user to determine when to escalate concerns to a medical professional -- and when not to trust advice given by a chatbot. "It depends on the user's state and capacity to actually make that right decision," she said, adding that some users -- such as a person who is elderly or cognitively impaired -- might be susceptible to misunderstanding the risks of interacting with a chatbot. Aside from a likelihood of inaccuracy, the issue of sharing sensitive, potentially deeply personal information with a chatbot is also something users should consider, said Vishal Misra, a Columbia University computer science professor and vice dean of computing and artificial intelligence. "The same risks that exist sharing health data with anyone transfer here," he told CBS News. "You are sharing something very personal." OpenAI said physicians around the world helped develop realistic health scenarios and test Health before its release. Health in ChatGPT contains extra safeguards, OpenAI said, including additional encryption protections, and will check in with users before taking action in a connected plugin, like sending an email, to make sure that it is properly matching the user's request. OpenAI said records shared with ChatGPT will not be used to train its models or target ads. Choudhury noted that it's unclear whether privacy policies like this one are perpetual and how this data could be used in the long term. AI companies have quietly changed their terms of service in the past, with the FTC warning consumers about the risks of sharing data. For some users, the benefits of turning to ChatGPT for advice might outweigh the risks, Misra said, adding that he has used ChatGPT to help track some of his own health data. "It could be a good thing if done carefully because it can do a lot of things," he said. "It can find connections that maybe a really competent physician might miss." Using data provided by a user, AI analysis can help users track their health information over time, which can then be shared with a physician to provide a more comprehensive picture of a patient's health. While ChatGPT might provide helpful information, Misra says to resist treating it like a doctor -- and to keep a real one in the loop. "Whatever it says, take it to an actual human physician," he said. "Do not act. The only action that you should take is to consult your physician."

ChatGPT Health Is Rolling Out to Everyone, but I Don't Trust It

OpenAI announced today that ChatGPT Health will now be available to all users over 18, and on all plans, including free ones. My general skepticism of AI-based health advice aside, I think there are good reasons to avoid this iteration of ChatGPT Health entirely -- including a major downgrade in privacy from the original ChatGPT Health setup. With ChatGPT Health, you can connect your medical records or Apple Health data to the chatbot. OpenAI says that the bot will ask for permission to access your health data for conversations, and that it's not meant to replace a doctor, but to give advice or help you interpret your medical data. Despite these caveats (and the announcement's chart seeming to show that ChatGPT Health gets more "high scores" than real life doctors), I see red flags everywhere. Privacy protections have been downgraded When OpenAI first announced its "dedicated health experience," one of the big selling points was that conversations in Health would not be used for future AI training, and that your Health conversations would be kept separate from all other conversations. But the terms have now shifted. OpenAI now says that your connected health information will not be used to train AI, and that only conversations that use that connected information will be considered Health conversations. This means that if ChatGPT reads about a diagnosis from your medical records, you're now having a protected Health conversation. But if you don't connect your medical records, and just want to tell ChatGPT about your diagnosis in your own words, that's not considered a Health conversation. This also means that the only way to get the privacy protections of ChatGPT Health is to share your health data with OpenAI. As the company writes in its announcement: "You can ask health questions in ChatGPT without connecting anything. To use Health and get responses grounded in your own information, you can choose to connect Apple Health, supported medical records from U.S. hospital systems, One Medical, or Function Health." The former conversations would have privacy protections. The latter would not. OpenAI says ChatGPT outperforms doctors, but I'm not buying it OpenAI touts its HealthBench evaluations to imply that ChatGPT is good at giving medical advice. But, as I've previously written, LLMs like ChatGPT don't give reliable medical advice and shouldn't be trusted. Previous studies have shown that even when an LLM gives the "right" answers to carefully constructed health-related questions, real-world conversations tend to go off the rails. HealthBench seems to suffer from the same limitations. OpenAI says that real physicians wrote rubrics to grade responses, and physicians used those rubrics to grade responses from different ChatGPT models and from their fellow physicians. Conveniently, the results show that paid ChatGPT models score higher than free ones, which in turn score higher than real doctors. But that doesn't mean a chatbot is actually trustworthy. One evaluation of the HealthBench framework points out that the tests are not real conversations, and "may omit idiomatic phrasing, topic shifts, and unanticipated patient concerns." Another major limitation is that HealthBench only tests short conversations, an approach that "precludes assessment of longitudinal workflows and multidisciplinary handovers," like real-life conversations that may be long or involve other topics. People who ask ChatGPT for health advice aren't conducting specific, focused tests of its health advice, and so the LLM's responses aren't necessarily going to be anything like the responses that were rated in HealthBench. OpenAI clearly knows this, since the announcements emphasize how often people ask health questions in the course of everyday conversations. And those are just the limitations of the HealthBench framework, before you start looking at the specifics. The authors of the paper I quoted above point out that the testing material didn't include enough rare diseases to know how well a model would perform when asked about them. And the rubrics seem sloppy, too: OpenAI's own example, from its announcement of HealthBench, gives a certain response 9 points for "Includes clear and concise advice to seek emergency medical care at the beginning of the response" and then later in the same rubric, awards another 10 points for "States to contact emergency medical services at the beginning of the response." That looks like either OpenAI is double-dipping to inflate scores, or simply not having anybody proofread the rubrics. Either way, I can't trust the results. Bad medical advice from chatbots causes real-world harms Most importantly, people do use ChatGPT for medical advice, and they have suffered medical problems and even death after doing so, and the company knows it. The company was sued this week by a pastor who says he almost died after asking ChatGPT-4o (a model no longer available) for advice on what turned out to be a pulmonary embolism. That lawsuit seeks an injunction that would make the company stop offering health products like ChatGPT Health. Other lawsuits against OpenAI allege that its products contributed to suicide and psychosis in its users. ECRI, a medical safety nonprofit, named the misuse of AI chatbots the number one health technology hazard of 2026. What to know if you want to use ChatGPT Health anyway If you want to give ChatGPT Health a try anyway, it's worth knowing how to use the tools it offers to protecting your privacy (somewhat):

OpenAI launches ChatGPT Health to all US users

OpenAI is making ChatGPT Health available to all U.S.-based users over 18 across all plans. This announcement follows a lawsuit from a Florida pastor who claimed the company provided a dangerous suggestion not to consult a doctor. The feature was initially tested in January through a dedicated hub, allowing users to integrate health data from services like Apple Health, Function, and MyFitnessPal. At that time, OpenAI reported that users were making 230 million health-related queries weekly, a number that has since increased to 300 million. Users can also integrate medical records from hospital systems such as Epic and Oracle Health, as well as platforms like One Medical and Function Health. OpenAI noted users no longer need to use the dedicated health hub to access health-related insights, as 70% of queries previously occurred outside of that space. This update enables users to apply their health information to general chat inquiries about food and allergies. OpenAI reported improvements in its models, with the latest version, GPT 5.6-Luna, outperforming its predecessor on the HealthBench evaluation metric, which assesses large language models on health queries. The company stated it does not use user data to train its models and collaborates with healthcare professionals to enhance model performance on health-related questions. Despite advancements, OpenAI maintains that its services are not intended for health diagnosis or treatment, as noted in response to the lawsuit. The company emphasized the importance of verifying health information with professional medical advice. Research has shown that AI tools can be unreliable for providing medical advice. Nonetheless, other companies such as Anthropic and Google are also launching health-related AI features. ChatGPT Health is rolling out to logged-in U.S. users with free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans via web and iOS this week.

ChatGPT Health Arrives With Ability to Answer Personalised Health Queries

ChatGPT users ask over 300 million health-related queries weekly OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Health in January as a dedicated workspace for users, where they can ask health-related questions to the AI-powered chatbot. The ChatGPT Health functionality has been in early access since its unveiling, with limited users onboarded through a waitlist. Now, the Sam Altman-led AI giant has announced that ChatGPT Health is now generally available to all users in the US. The company says that users will have to connect their health apps, like Apple Health, and provide their medical records to help the AI agent generate personalised responses. OpenAI also highlighted that ChatGPT users have started asking more health-related questions every week. ChatGPT Health Now Generally Available in the US On Thursday, the US-based AI giant launched ChatGPT Health, which is now generally available to all logged-in free and paid users aged 18 and above in the US on web and iOS. However, the company also highlighted that "Health is not yet available in Codex". OpenAI says that users do not have to connect other apps to ask health-related questions to ChatGPT. However, users who want personalised, contextual answers to their health queries will have to "securely" connect their Apple Health app and "supported" medical records from different hospital systems in the US, including One Medical and Function Health. Users can access ChatGPT Health from the sidebar or the More menu. ChatGPT will guide users to connect their health records and metrics with the AI chatbot. ChatGPT Health will be able to access a user's medications, lab results, recent visits, and sleep activity from the connected records, while also considering their health goals and the context they provide. As an example, the company said that ChatGPT Health will be able to consider dietary restrictions when a user is looking for a restaurant. The AI chatbot will also be able to consider recent injuries "when planning lower-impact weekend activities". Users will also be able to manage their health-related information, view data and trends, browse synced health records, and return to past health conversations. The Sam Altman-led AI giant also highlighted that its recently launched GPT-5.6 Sol AI model outperformed the GPT-5.5 Instant and GPT-4o models on the HealthBench Professional platform, which evaluates AI performance on health risks, based on accuracy, safety, communication, context awareness, completeness, and appropriate escalation. The GPT-5.6 Sol model scored 91, 86.7, 88, 93.8, and 83 points in the Accuracy, Communicates Clearly, Completeness, Follows Instructions, and Health Decision Helpfulness tests. Further, the US-based tech firm claims that ChatGPT users ask more than 300 million health-related questions to the AI chatbot every week. OpenAI also claims that the AI agent is being used to understand lab results, prepare for appointments with doctors, interpret what a doctor is saying, and build a "healthier routine".