ChatGPT Health connects with Epic so clinicians can read patient records

In short: OpenAI says ChatGPT Health can now connect to Epic so clinicians can import and review patient record information with read-only access.

What happened

OpenAI said it is integrating ChatGPT Health with Epic, a widely used electronic health record system (the software hospitals use to store patient charts). Epic says its systems hold data for more than 325 million patients.

With this connection, clinicians can bring information like visit notes, lab results, medications, and specialist documents into ChatGPT and ask questions or generate summaries. OpenAI also said that in some setups, ChatGPT will appear directly inside Epic workflows, so a clinician can use it without leaving a patient chart.

OpenAI emphasized that the access is read-only. That means ChatGPT can look at the record but cannot change it or write anything back, like a guest who can read a document but cannot edit it.

OpenAI also announced a new Healthcare Public Data plugin. A plugin is like an add-on that lets ChatGPT pull information from specific public sources. The company said it can fetch data from places like ClinicalTrials.gov, PubMed (a database of medical research papers), and DailyMed (official drug label information).

Why it matters

For patients, this could affect how quickly a clinician reviews a long medical history, especially when details are spread across many notes and test results. At the same time, OpenAI has said AI is not meant to diagnose or choose treatments, and recent lawsuits highlighted that incorrect health advice can be harmful. How hospitals set rules for using these tools, and how often they are checked for safety, will be important to watch.

Source: TechCrunch AI