Millions turn to ChatGPT for health advice

With healthcare costs rising and appointment wait times growing, more people are turning to AI chatbots for health advice instead of traditional healthcare providers.

According to a new report from OpenAI, one in four of its users submits a healthcare-related prompt to its AI chatbot ChatGPT every week. In addition, over 40 million people ask ChatGPT healthcare-related questions every day. In the United States, three in five adults said they used AI tools for their health or healthcare in the past three months.

Among U.S. adults who have used AI to manage their health in the last three months, 55% said they used it to check or explore symptoms, 48% used it to understand medical terms or instructions, and 44% used it to understand treatment options.

The report also found high healthcare-related traffic from users in underserved rural communities. On average, users in these areas send almost 600,000 healthcare-related messages every week. Among areas defined as "hospital deserts" or locations that are more than a 30-minute drive from a general medical or children's hospital, Wyoming had the highest proportion of healthcare-related messages (4.15%), followed by Oregon (3.4%), Montana, (3.2%), South Dakota (2.95%), and Vermont (2.89%).

"AI will not, on its own, reopen a shuttered hospital, restore a discontinued OB unit, or replace other critical but vanishing services," OpenAI researchers wrote. "But it can make a near-term contribution by helping people in underserved areas interpret information, prepare for care, and navigate gaps in access, while helping rare clinicians reclaim time and reduce burnout."

OpenAI launches ChatGPT Health

With millions of people already using AI chatbots for healthcare questions, OpenAI has launched a new health-focused feature called ChatGPT Health. The new feature will allow users to upload their medical records and connect data from wellness apps like Apple Health, Function, and MyFitnessPal. 

"OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT Health is the strongest signal yet that the company believes its AI solutions can fill a need for patients, with implications for health care organizations, physicians, and the industry as a whole," said Ty Aderhold, a director at Advisory Board.

ChatGPT Health operates in a separate, dedicated space within the main ChatGPT platform and includes additional privacy and security protections designed for sensitive health information. Conversations within ChatGPT Health are also encrypted, isolated from other chats, and will not be used to train the chatbot's foundation models.

Although OpenAI has emphasized that ChatGPT should not replace medical advice or care from healthcare professionals, company leaders say the feature can play an important role in helping people navigate the healthcare system. 

"Doctors don't have enough time or bandwidth. They can't spend as much time understanding everything about you, and they don't have time to explain what's going on in a way that you can understand," said Fidji Simo, OpenAI's CEO of applications. "Meanwhile, when you look at AI, it doesn't have any of these constraints."

Currently, ChatGPT Health is only available to a small group of early users, but people who are interested can sign up for a waitlist to access the feature. The feature will be available to all users online and on iOS in the coming weeks.

In addition to ChatGPT Health, OpenAI also recently launched OpenAI for Healthcare, a suite of new AI tools aimed at supporting clinical and administrative work at hospitals and health systems. The suite includes ChatGPT for Healthcare and the OpenAI API for Healthcare. Several healthcare organizations are already using the new tools, including AdventHealth, Baylor Scott & White Health, and Boston Children's Hospital.

"For clinicians and care teams, these technology enhancements are designed to reduce documentation and administrative burden so providers can spend more time with patients. This includes generative AI that summarizes longitudinal clinical and administrative data to surface the most relevant information, ambient documentation that streamlines note creation and supports more face-to-face conversation, and AI-assisted in-basket and care coordination strategies that triage messages and drafts responses with appropriate human oversight and auditability," said Ben Isenhour, a senior director at Optum Advisory.*

*Advisory Board is a subsidiary of Optum. All Advisory Board research, expert perspectives, and recommendations remain independent.