Anthropic has become the latest artificial intelligence (AI) company to announce a new suite of features that allows users of its Claude platform to better understand their health information.
As part of an initiative called Claude for Healththe company said U.S. subscribers of the Claude Pro and Max plans can choose to give Claude secure access to their lab results and health records by connection to HealthEx and Functionwith Apple Health and Android Health Connect integrations rolling out later this week via its iOS and Android apps.
“Once connected, Claude can summarize users’ medical history, explain test results in simple language, detect trends in fitness and health parameters, and prepare questions for appointments,” Anthropic said. “The goal is to make patients’ conversations with doctors more productive and help users stay well-informed about their health.”
The development comes just days after OpenAI’s unveiling ChatGPT Health as a dedicated experience allowing users to securely connect medical records and wellness apps and get personalized answers, lab information, nutritional advice and meal ideas.
The company also emphasized that the integrations are private by design and that users can explicitly choose the type of information they want to share with Claude and disconnect or change Claude’s permissions at any time. As with OpenAI, health data is not used to train its models.
The expansion comes amid growing questions about whether AI systems can avoid providing harmful or dangerous advice. Recently, Google intervened withdraw some of its AI summaries after finding they provided inaccurate health information. OpenAI and Anthropic stressed that their AI offerings can make errors and are not a substitute for advice from a medical professional.
In the Acceptable Use Policy, Anthropic Remarks that a qualified professional in the field should review generated results “prior to dissemination or finalization” in high-risk use cases related to healthcare decisions, medical diagnosis, patient care, therapy, mental health, or other medical advice.
“Claude is designed to include contextual warnings, acknowledge uncertainty, and direct users to healthcare professionals for personalized advice,” Anthropic said.