Healthdirect is bringing trusted, clinically grounded health guidance to ChatGPT, designed and built by DEPT®.
DEPT® is designing and building the ChatGPT experience that will connect Healthdirect’s nurses, clinical content, and triage technology to the millions of Australians already turning to AI for health advice.
ChatGPT is now used by around half of Australia’s adult population, and 55% of Australians have used it to check symptoms before seeing a doctor. Healthdirect Australia, working with clinical-AI company Infermedica, and technology partners AWS and DEPT®, is developing a new way for Australians to get trustworthy health guidance without leaving the conversation they’re already having.
As Healthdirect’s digital product partner for the initiative, DEPT® is behind the experience itself: the conversation design, the clinical tool integrations, and the interactive UI widgets that bring Healthdirect’s services to life right inside ChatGPT.
“Australians are reaching for AI because it’s instant, it’s personal, and it speaks their language,” said Bettina McMahon, Chief Executive Officer, Healthdirect Australia. “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.”
“Healthcare is one of the highest-stakes places you can put a generative AI experience, there’s no room for guessing. We’re designing the experience so clinical logic leads the conversation, not the model, so every Australian who reaches out gets guidance they can trust and a clear path to a real person when they need one.
”Evan Davey, SVP Digital Experience, DEPT®
Designing for trust, not just conversation
DEPT® is building the experience so a person doesn’t have to know the right questions to ask. A triage engine from Infermedica guides the conversation first. From there, answers draw on Healthdirect’s clinically assured content library, and the consumer can hand off to a real Australian nurse at any point, picking up right where the chat left off.
Take a simple example: a consumer might one day prompt ChatGPT, “I fell over yesterday and grazed my cheek. How should I care for it?” Instead of jumping straight to wound-care advice, the experience is designed to check first for warning signs of something more serious, like concussion, before offering self-care guidance and the option to speak with a nurse.
“Large language models have changed how people access health information, but healthcare requires a higher standard of safety, transparency and clinical oversight,” said Piotr Orzechowski, Chief Executive Officer, Infermedica.
““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”
”Bettina McMahon, Chief Executive Officer, Healthdirect Australia
Open by design
The collaboration runs on open standards, so it can extend to other AI assistants over time. Healthdirect keeps its clinical logic, content, and data governance in its own AWS secure cloud environment, while DEPT® focuses on turning that infrastructure into something Australians will actually want to use.
“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”, said Bettina McMahon. “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.”
The proof of concept starts with an invited group of consumers, whose experience will help shape the guardrails, monitoring, and governance ahead of any wider release.
