Read a drug's FDA label, see if it's short or recalled, list the trials enrolling now and find recent reviews, with a federal record behind each answer. The Firecrawl plugin gives ChatGPT these public health sources through Firecrawl Alexandria, including the openFDA datasets. Signing up doesn't require clinician verification, so pharma and medtech teams, researchers and students can use it too. It supports research and doesn't replace a clinician's review for care decisions.
Best for
- Pharmacists and clinicians checking current shortages and recalls before a formulary or ordering decision.
- Life-science and market-access teams tracking competitor trials and approvals.
- Medical writers and students who need sources with a PMID or NCT number.
Plugins and data providers
Plugin: the Firecrawl plugin. With it, ChatGPT can query FDA, NIH and CMS databases held in Firecrawl Alexandria, and lookups are paid from your Firecrawl credits. Verified US clinicians can also use OpenAI's own Healthcare Public Data plugin inside ChatGPT for Clinicians (OpenAI).
Data providers in Firecrawl Alexandria
| Provider | Tool | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| FDA | Drug labels | Structured labeling with indications and warnings, where available. |
| FDA | Drug shortages | Shortage entries with generic name, company, presentation, status (Current, Resolved, To Be Discontinued) and update date. |
| FDA | Drug recalls | Enforcement recalls with classification, reason, recalling firm and status. Device and food recalls have their own tools. |
| FDA | Drug applications | Drugs@FDA applications and their submission histories. |
| ClinicalTrials.gov | Search | Trials by condition, intervention, sponsor, status or location, with NCT number, phase, enrollment and dates. |
| PubMed and PMC | Search | Literature records in PubMed syntax with PMID, journal, date and DOI. |
| NPI Registry | Search | A clinician or facility found by name, specialty, city or ZIP, returning the NPI and where they practice. |
Explore Firecrawl Alexandria data providers across categories
Starter prompt
Change the drug and the questions:
@firecrawl I need a current-state brief on tirzepatide. Use the FDA,
ClinicalTrials.gov and PubMed tools in Firecrawl Alexandria, and show the
price of each tool before running it.
Include:
- The FDA label's indications and boxed warning, quoted.
- Whether it appears in the FDA drug shortage list, with status and date.
- Five recruiting trials with NCT number, phase, sponsor and condition.
- Three systematic reviews from 2025 or later with PMID and journal.
Quote sources exactly and say when a record is missing. This is for
research, not for advice about any patient.Before you start
- Install it. You'll find the Firecrawl plugin button just after these three steps.
- Connect Firecrawl. Each FDA, ClinicalTrials.gov, PubMed or NPI lookup costs 5 credits. Sign up to get started.
- Keep patient data out. Ask about drugs, trials and conditions, and leave any named patient out of it. These tools search public records and need no protected health information.
Limitations of using ChatGPT for healthcare research without Firecrawl
Using ChatGPT for medical research leaves little room for error, and plain ChatGPT has documented gaps in exactly that area.
- Inaccurate drug answers. In a 2025 study against the Lexicomp reference, ChatGPT-3.5 answered 30% of real clinician drug questions accurately and ChatGPT-4 40%, with limited consistency across repeated tries (JACCP). The authors urge caution when using ChatGPT for drug information.
- Invented references. When researchers checked the citations in medical papers ChatGPT had drafted, 47% of 115 were fabricated (Cureus).
- Missing recent changes. Unless it calls a tool, ChatGPT only knows what was in its training data, OpenAI explains (OpenAI), so a new shortage, recall or label update won't appear.
- Not a clinician. OpenAI's usage policies bar tailored advice that requires a license, such as medical advice, without appropriate involvement by a licensed professional (OpenAI).
- Patient privacy. Even in ChatGPT for Clinicians, OpenAI tells users not to include patient names, medical record numbers or other protected health information in queries sent to public healthcare sources (OpenAI).
How ChatGPT checks FDA, trial and PubMed records with Firecrawl
Whether it's ChatGPT for doctors or ChatGPT for pharma teams, three layers feed each answer:
- Firecrawl Alexandria: the plugin's route to these databases. It lists 100+ official providers under paid agreements, health agencies among them, and Firecrawl's own web, Research, Developer and Government indexes. Firecrawl's 845-task study found agents equipped with Firecrawl Alexandria answered 21% better than agents left with stock web search.
- FDA records, current to the week: a shortage query returned dopamine, midazolam and amphetamine products listed as Current, updated between Sep 22 and Oct 5, 2026. Recent drug recalls included Class II actions in September 2026 for a lack of sterility assurance and for CGMP deviations.
- Trials and literature: for tirzepatide, ClinicalTrials.gov counted 98 studies still recruiting, listing NCT ID, phase, sponsor and projected completion for each, while PubMed covers the published side with PMIDs.
- Source text you can check: every result links to the government record, and openFDA itself says not to rely on its data for medical care decisions.
Healthcare research in ChatGPT with and without Firecrawl Alexandria
| ChatGPT alone | ChatGPT with Firecrawl Alexandria | |
|---|---|---|
| Drug facts | From training data, accuracy varies | FDA label text, quoted |
| Shortages and recalls | Not current | FDA shortage and recall records with status and dates |
| Clinical trials | A few well-known studies | ClinicalTrials.gov search by drug, condition, sponsor or status |
| Literature | References that may not exist | PubMed records with PMID and DOI |
| Providers | Not available | NPI Registry records with specialty and practice address |
| Source | Hard to check | Federal health sources (FDA, ClinicalTrials.gov, PubMed, NPI Registry), each listed in Firecrawl Alexandria next to 100+ other providers. Explore the catalog |
| Approval history | Approximate dates | Drugs@FDA applications and submissions |
Build your own healthcare research workflow
Set the prompt up for your role. For a hospital pharmacist:
@firecrawl List every drug currently in shortage on the FDA list that is
an injectable, with company, presentation and last update date. Then
check FDA recalls from the last 30 days for any of the same drugs.For a pharma competitive intelligence analyst:
@firecrawl On ClinicalTrials.gov, find Phase 3 trials for obesity that are
recruiting, grouped by sponsor, with intervention and estimated primary
completion date. Flag any sponsor with more than three.Both prompts name the source, the filter and the output, so ChatGPT returns records rather than recollections.
Take it further
Check a recall
@firecrawl Search FDA drug recalls from September 2026 and list each with
classification, recalling firm and reason.Read a trial's protocol
@firecrawl Open NCT07091734 on ClinicalTrials.gov and summarize its
eligibility criteria, primary outcome and sites.Scan adverse event reports
@firecrawl Search FDA adverse event reports for semaglutide involving
pancreatitis and summarize seriousness and reporter type.Find a specialist
@firecrawl Find cardiovascular disease specialists in Austin, Texas in the
NPI Registry with NPI and practice address.List tools and prices
@firecrawl Which tools search FDA records, clinical trials, PubMed or the
NPI Registry? List each with its price.What it costs
ChatGPT can list tools and their prices at no cost. Credits are deducted per priced call, and Firecrawl pricing has the allowance for each plan.
| Tool | Answers | Credits per call |
|---|---|---|
| Drug labels (FDA) | What the label says | 5 |
| Drug shortages (FDA) | Is it in shortage | 5 |
| Drug recalls (FDA) | Has it been recalled | 5 |
| Drug applications (FDA) | When and how was it approved | 5 |
| Search (ClinicalTrials.gov) | Which trials are running | 5 |
| Search (PubMed and PMC) | What the literature says | 5 |
| Search (NPI Registry) | Who the provider is | 5 |
Under each answer, ChatGPT lists which tool ran and how many credits went to it.
[ Healthcare research in ChatGPT ]
Install the Firecrawl plugin and check drugs, trials and papers against the official record. Browsing tools is free.
Related use cases
- How to search arXiv and PubMed in ChatGPT: deeper PubMed searches and peer reviews.
- How to find papers that cite a study in ChatGPT: follow a trial's results into later work.
- How to use ChatGPT for research: literature and statistics for any topic.
Coverage limits
- US records. The FDA, NPI and most ClinicalTrials.gov data describe the US system. For EU medicines, the EMA provider in Firecrawl Alexandria covers centrally authorized products.
- Registries aren't verdicts. A label's presence doesn't mean a product is marketed, an NPI doesn't establish licensure, and trial openings should be confirmed with the study team.
- Not medical advice. What comes back is public data for research and for professionals to review. Treatment decisions for a patient sit with their clinician.