WOMEN'S HEALTH TECH REPORT: How to Set Up ChatGPT Properly
A step-by-step guide for women’s health clinicians and patients
Large language models -- AI tools that read, write, and reason with text -- are reshaping how clinicians and patients engage with medical information. Some are being marketed directly to women’s healthcare providers and patients with claims that deserve the same scrutiny we apply to any new clinical technology.
Before WHTR evaluates these tools, you need to know how to use the most widely known one. ChatGPT, made by OpenAI, is the most recognized AI tool in the world -- and like any clinical tool, the results depend entirely on how well you set it up. This guide walks you through exactly how to do it.
These steps apply whether you are an OB, MFM specialist, midwife, L&D nurse, gynecology nurse practitioner, or a patient trying to understand your own care.
Step 1. Create Your Account
Go to chat.openai.com and click Sign up. You can register with your email address or sign in with Google or Apple.
Once you are in, you land on the main chat screen. The text box at the bottom is where you type. Before you start chatting, spend ten minutes on setup. It will change how useful this tool is for you.
Step 2. Choose the Right Plan
ChatGPT offers a free plan, a Plus plan at $20 per month, and a Pro plan at $200 per month. Here is what matters for clinical and patient use:
Free plan: You can ask questions and have short conversations using GPT-4o, OpenAI’s main model. Memory and file uploads have limits. Workable for quick questions, but not reliable for document-heavy clinical work.
ChatGPT Plus ($20/month): This is the plan WHTR readers should use. You get priority access to GPT-4o, the ability to upload PDFs, web search, longer conversations, and full memory features. For reading research, reviewing guidelines, and drafting clinical content, Plus is the right choice.
ChatGPT Pro ($200/month): Designed for very heavy users. Includes access to more advanced reasoning models and higher usage limits. Most clinicians and patients will not need it.
For clinicians: Uploading a full ACOG Practice Bulletin, SMFM Consult, or NICE guideline and asking ChatGPT to analyze it against another document requires Plus. Free handles brief questions but not multi-page document review.
For patients: If you want to upload the consent form your doctor gave you and ask ChatGPT to explain what it means in plain language, you need Plus. Free can handle short, direct questions only.
The Women's Health Tech Report: Safety analysis, the evidence critique, and the verdict are below -- for subscribers who want the full picture.
The next six steps — Customize, Settings, Projects, Memory, document upload, and knowing Claude’s limits — are where I explain (for $ 0.16/day) how an AI tool becomes a clinical-grade assistant that saves you hours every week, which means this guide alone is worth more than your annual WHTR subscription.
