Anthropic is making a major push into the healthcare and life sciences space, unveiling a suite of new AI tools designed to integrate its Claude models into regulated medical environments. The company launched Claude for Healthcare, a HIPAA-compliant platform enabling healthcare providers, insurers, and consumers to use its AI for medical tasks with strict privacy safeguards. This expansion builds on Anthropic’s earlier initiative, Claude for Life Sciences, which targeted researchers and pharmaceutical developers. Now, the company is broadening its reach to include clinical workflows, administrative support, and patient-facing applications—reflecting a growing trend as AI firms race to embed large language models into high-stakes, regulated sectors. The move comes amid rising competition. OpenAI recently introduced its own healthcare-focused AI tools, while startups like Abridge and Sword Health have secured multi-billion-dollar valuations, signaling strong investor interest in AI-driven medical innovation. Claude for Healthcare is built on the latest version of Anthropic’s flagship model, Claude Opus 4.5, which the company claims delivers significantly improved performance on medical and scientific benchmarks compared to earlier iterations. It also exhibits fewer factual inaccuracies, a critical improvement for clinical use. The platform now connects directly to several key healthcare databases, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Coverage Database, ICD-10 coding standards, the National Provider Identifier Registry, and PubMed’s vast biomedical research library. These integrations allow clinicians and administrators to quickly retrieve relevant information, streamline prior authorization processes, and generate reports more efficiently. Anthropic is also introducing customizable “Agent Skills” tailored for healthcare workflows. These include tools for automating prior authorization requests and assisting developers in building applications using FHIR, the industry-standard framework for exchanging healthcare data. On the consumer side, U.S. users on Anthropic’s Pro and Max subscription tiers can now securely connect their personal health records to Claude via integrations with HealthEx and Function Health. Apple HealthKit and Android Health Connect support will launch in beta through Claude’s mobile apps. Anthropic emphasized that data accessed through these connections is not stored in the model’s memory and is not used to train its AI systems. In parallel, Anthropic is enhancing its offerings for life sciences clients with new connectors to platforms like Medidata, ClinicalTrials.gov, and bioRxiv. New agent skills now support tasks such as drafting clinical trial protocols compliant with FDA and NIH guidelines and monitoring trial progress in real time. As AI continues to penetrate healthcare, Anthropic’s strategy reflects a broader industry shift toward practical, compliant, and trustworthy AI applications in medicine—where accuracy, privacy, and regulatory adherence are paramount.