OpenAI has enhanced ChatGPT's healthcare capabilities with the GPT-5.5 Instant model, which now matches the performance of the most expensive Thinking models on machine-based health tests like HealthBench and HealthBench Professional. The model is available to all free ChatGPT users, though with usage limits. According to OpenAI, GPT-5.5 Instant's responses scored higher in accuracy, clarity, and completeness when compared to doctors. The rate of incorrect health statements has dropped by 71 percent over the past two months. GPT-5.5 Instant tops both GPT-4o and physician-written answers across all five evaluation categories in OpenAI's own benchmarks, scoring up to 89.9 percent on instruction following.
A network of over 260 doctors from 60 countries has contributed to these improvements, reviewing more than 700,000 model responses. OpenAI claims that more than 230 million people use ChatGPT weekly for health-related questions, such as understanding lab results, prepping for doctor's appointments, or sorting out insurance questions. The company also offers specialized tools for healthcare professionals, including ChatGPT for Clinicians and OpenAI for Healthcare.
OpenAI said the GPT-5.5 Instant model was developed to provide more accurate and reliable health information to users. The company emphasized that the model's performance was tested against both machine-based benchmarks and human-written medical content. The improvements were made possible through collaboration with a global network of medical professionals.
Source: thedecoder
