OpenAI Hires Instagram and Doximity Execs to Accelerate Healthcare AI Ambitions

OpenAI is intensifying its push into healthcare by bringing on two high-profile executives: Nate Gross, co-founder and former chief strategy officer of Doximity, and Ashley Alexander, former co-head of product at Instagram. Their appointments signal OpenAI’s intent to move beyond powering other companies’ AI tools and begin launching its own healthcare-focused products and services. Gross joined OpenAI in June, while Alexander officially started her new role as vice president of product in OpenAI’s health division on Tuesday, according to their LinkedIn profiles. The company confirmed that Gross will lead the go-to-market strategy for healthcare, with initial goals including co-developing new technologies with clinicians and researchers. Alexander will focus on building AI tools for both individual consumers and medical professionals. Until now, OpenAI’s involvement in healthcare has largely been through partnerships and research collaborations. However, the company has been increasingly vocal about its ambitions in the space. CEO Sam Altman highlighted ChatGPT’s advanced medical knowledge during the August launch of GPT-5, describing it as a “legitimate Ph.D. expert” capable of helping users navigate healthcare decisions. This capability was validated by HealthBench, an open-source benchmark released in May that evaluates the accuracy and safety of AI models in healthcare settings. OpenAI’s broader strategy reflects a shift toward owning not just foundational AI models but also the applications and infrastructure built on top of them. In education, it launched Study Mode in July to compete with Google’s Gemini for Education. It has also demonstrated an AI sales agent and rolled out an agentic tool that handles shopping and reservations. Healthcare AI is already a crowded field, with players like Palantir, Microsoft, and startups such as Abridge and Pathway Medical making major moves. Microsoft, for example, has been integrating AI into clinical workflows through partnerships with Epic and cloud-based tools for clinicians. Gross brings deep experience in digital health. He co-founded Doximity, a professional network for doctors, in 2009, and later launched Doximity GPT, an AI assistant for physicians powered by OpenAI. In 2024, Doximity acquired AI clinical evidence company Pathway Medical for $63 million and introduced a free AI scribe to compete with Microsoft and Abridge. Doximity remains one of the few healthcare companies from the 2021 IPO wave still profitable, with its stock up over 60% from its IPO price. Alexander spent 12 years at Meta, including 11 on Instagram’s product team, where she helped shape key features around advertising, creator monetization, and video content. OpenAI’s healthcare research continues to be led by Karan Singal, a former Google researcher who played a key role in developing Med-PaLM, Google’s medical language model. Singal will remain in charge of OpenAI’s healthcare AI research. The company is actively hiring for additional roles in its health division, including positions for a health AI research scientist and a healthcare software engineer. While OpenAI is expanding its direct presence in healthcare, it is not abandoning partnerships. It recently collaborated with Kenyan primary care provider Penda Health to test its AI clinical copilot built on GPT-4o. It also continues to power technology for startups like Summer Health and Oscar Health. OpenAI stated that improving human health is one of the defining impacts it sees for artificial general intelligence, underscoring the strategic importance of this new phase.