OpenAI launches a ChatGPT Health integration with Epic's EHR system and a new Healthcare Public Data plug-in that can fetch info from sources including PubMed (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

OpenAI has expanded the capabilities of its ChatGPT for Healthcare platform by integrating it with Epic electronic health record (EHR) systems, allowing clinicians to access authorized patient records without manually transferring data between systems. This read-only integration enables clinicians to retrieve and summarize authorized information, such as appointment notes, lab results, medications, and specialist documentation, within the ChatGPT workspace.

The integration can also appear within supported EHR layouts, enabling tasks like pre-visit reviews and clinical timelines without switching applications. UCSF Health is serving as a pilot partner for this integration, exploring how it can help clinical teams understand changes and key information in patient records. Additionally, OpenAI has launched a Healthcare Public Data plugin that connects ChatGPT to nine official healthcare data sources, including ClinicalTrials.gov, CMS Coverage, RxNorm, DailyMed, and PubMed.

This allows researchers, pharmacy teams, and population health groups to access authoritative medical data within the same workspace. In testing across 27 clinical use cases involving connected EHR information, 99.1% of responses were rated safe, with accuracy ratings above 93% across each of the five public data sources tested.

However, the read-only nature of the integration highlights the importance of human clinicians verifying the information and deciding its impact on patient care. OpenAI positions the integration as a clinical review and decision-support layer rather than an autonomous medical system, requiring clinicians to use it responsibly within governed workspaces that include role-based access, single sign-on, and audit logs.