Healthdirect has announced a collaboration with clinical AI company Infermedica, skin cancer screening company Skin Analytics and technology partners AWS and DEPT to bring Healthdirect directly into ChatGPT.
The collaboration uses open standards so it can expand to other AI assistants over time, “not just ChatGPT,” with Healthdirect retaining the clinical logic, content and data governance within its secure AWS cloud environment.
Healthdirect Australia Chief Executive Officer Bettina McMahon said Australians were reaching for AI “because it’s instant, it’s personal and it speaks their language.”
“Our job isn’t to talk them out of that, but to make it as safe and reliable as possible. For an Australian who opens ChatGPT with a worry at 11pm, we want them to get guidance grounded in trusted Australian health information, and to know a nurse is just one tap away if they need one.”
She noted Australians were already using AI for their health, with ChatGPT already used by around half of Australia’s adult population – with OpenAI research showing 55 per cent of Australians had used ChatGPT to check symptoms before seeing a doctor, while 40 per cent had used it to understand treatment options.
“The right questions matter as well as the right answers: General-purpose AI assistants are powerful tools for health information and education, but healthcare outcomes depend not only on answers, but also on asking the right questions,” Healthdirect said in a statement.
“When Healthdirect is invoked in ChatGPT, consumers are guided through clinically validated questions, allowing clinical logic to lead the conversation.”
Healthdirect said its vision of what Australians will get from the collaboration includes:
• AI asking the right questions. Infermedica’s clinically validated triage technology guides the conversation and recommends next steps;
• Talking to a nurse, any time. Consumers can switch to an Australian Healthdirect nurse at any point, with a seamless handover from the chat;
• Answers grounded in trusted Australian content. Guidance draws on Healthdirect’s clinically assured content and trusted partners;
• A way to act on the advice. Consumers can find nearby services, available appointments and booking options through Healthdirect;
• Quality watched by Healthdirect. The experience is evaluated against clinical benchmarks and safeguards;
• No cost to consumers. Available through the free version of ChatGPT, with access to Healthdirect nurses and doctors when needed.
If a user tags Healthdirect, ChatGPT would ask a number of short questions drawn from Infermedica’s triage technology to check for warning signs of something more serious, before advising whether it’s safe to manage at home.
It would then provide self-care advice and offer the option to speak with a nurse.
Infermedica’s clinically validated triage technology has so far supported more than 27 million patient interactions globally and is used by more than 100 healthcare organisations across 35 countries.
The platform is certified as a Class IIb medical device under European MDR.
Infermedica Chief Executive Officer Piotr Orzechowski said large language models had changed how people access health information, “but healthcare requires a higher standard of safety, transparency and clinical oversight.”
“By combining Healthdirect’s trusted services, ChatGPT’s conversational capabilities and Infermedica’s triage technology built on more than 150,000 hours of physician expertise, we can help ensure Australians receive guidance that is both easy to access and grounded in proven clinical methodology.”
As part of the collaboration, autonomous skin cancer screening would be integrated into the experience.
Using technology from Skin Analytics, Australians would be able to photograph a skin spot with their phone and learn whether it could be benign, pre-malignant or malignant.
If required, the assistant would provide a referral letter and help arrange follow-up care.
DERM is the world’s first AI medical device cleared to autonomously assess skin cancer.
It has assessed more than 230,000 patients across 25 NHS hospitals in England and identified more than 20,000 skin cancers.
A consumer phone-only version has recently been certified, with Australian TGA registration underway.
Skin Analytics Chief Executive Officer Neil Daly said his company’s goal was “a world where no one dies of skin cancer – and that means meeting people where they are.”
“After six years and 20,000 cancers found in the UK’s NHS, we are partnering with Healthdirect, OpenAI and AWS to put a clinically validated skin cancer check where Australians are looking for health information. This is exactly the kind of partnership that turns our mission into something real for millions of people.”
AWS would provide infrastructure and technical support, while DEPT, Healthdirect’s digital product partner, would design and build the ChatGPT experience.
The proof of concept would start with an invited group of consumers, whose experiences would help shape governance, monitoring and safeguards before any wider release.
The collaboration will also look at potential risks, while ensuring consumers understood the limits of health advice delivered through an AI interface.
“This new technology has the potential to help millions of Australians make better choices about their health every day, and to connect with the right services”, Ms McMahon said.
“We are clear-eyed about what can go wrong, and we are designing safeguards built to scale nationally. But we are even clearer about our mission of a healthier Australia, and our duty to use every tool we have to reach it. The greater risk lies in standing still.”
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