Anthropic Introduces Claude for Healthcare Following OpenAI’s ChatGPT Health Launch

Shortly after OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT Health, Anthropic announced on Sunday that it is launching Claude for Healthcare, a new suite of AI tools designed for healthcare providers, payers, and patients.

Similar to ChatGPT Health, Claude for Healthcare allows users to connect health data from smartphones, smartwatches, and other platforms. Both companies have said that this health data will not be used to train their underlying AI models. Anthropic, however, is positioning its offering as more advanced, with a stronger focus on provider and payer workflows rather than primarily on patient-facing chat experiences.

While some healthcare professionals remain concerned about the risks of hallucination-prone large language models offering medical advice, Anthropic is emphasising what it calls Claude’s “agent skills.” As part of this effort, the company has introduced “connectors” that enable Claude to access trusted healthcare databases and platforms to support research, documentation, and reporting.

These connectors provide access to the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services Coverage Database, ICD-10, the National Provider Identifier, and PubMed.

In a blog post, Anthropic said Claude for Healthcare could use these connectors to streamline prior authorisation reviews. This process requires physicians to submit additional documentation to insurers to determine whether a medication or treatment will be covered.

“Clinicians often report spending more time on documentation and paperwork than actually seeing patients,” said Mike Krieger, Anthropic’s chief product officer, during a presentation on the product.

For physicians, prior authorisation paperwork is mainly administrative and does not require their specialised clinical expertise, making it a strong candidate for automation. While Claude for Healthcare can also provide medical information, Anthropic is positioning the automation of administrative tasks as a key benefit.

Large language models are already widely used for health-related questions. OpenAI reports that roughly 230 million people discuss health topics with ChatGPT each week, underscoring the growing role of AI in this area. Anthropic appears to be building on that trend with a more enterprise-focused healthcare offering.

Both Anthropic and OpenAI continue to emphasise that AI tools are not a replacement for professional medical care and encourage users to consult qualified healthcare providers for personalised, reliable medical guidance.