Faculty and staff across WashU Medicine have access to a growing portfolio of enterprise AI tools designed to support their work, from everyday productivity and collaboration to research, clinical and administrative needs involving sensitive information.
The latest addition is Claude Secure, which launched Sept. 14, 2026, and expands WashU’s Claude for Education offering. Claude for Education includes two separate workspaces — Claude Edu and Claude Secure — designed for different types of work. Both Claude Edu and Claude Secure offer paid Standard and Premium subscriptions, with the tiers differing by usage quota. Claude Secure is approved for use with WashU PHI and gives faculty and staff whose clinical, research or administrative work involves PHI access to Anthropic’s Claude models in a WashU-protected environment.
Its launch is part of a broader effort to help members of the WashU Medicine community understand the range of enterprise AI capabilities available to them and identify the right tool for the right need.
WashU provides several enterprise AI options with different capabilities, approved uses and audience availability. Depending on the work, faculty and staff may use tools such as Gemini, Ask WashU, ChatGPT Edu and other WashU-supported AI platforms. Researchers may have more specialized or advanced AI needs that extend beyond these tools. WashU provides additional enterprise pathways to support those needs, including API management (APIM).
“There isn’t one AI tool that is right for every type of work at WashU Medicine. Our goal is to give faculty and staff a range of enterprise options and make it easier to understand which tools are appropriate for their needs, whether they are supporting clinical care, conducting research, teaching or running operations. Claude Secure adds an important option for work involving PHI, but it is part of a much broader AI ecosystem we are building for the Medical Campus,” said Amy Walter, deputy chief information officer — research, clinical and medical education technologies.
Claude Secure and Claude Edu provide access to the same frontier Claude models, but the workspaces are designed for different needs. Someone looking for support with drafting, summarizing or brainstorming may have different requirements than a faculty or staff member working with PHI or a researcher developing a more specialized AI workflow.
Claude Edu includes additional capabilities such as Claude Cowork, Claude Code and Claude Design. It is approved for WashU FERPA-protected data but not PHI. Claude Secure focuses on the core Claude chat experience in a workspace approved for WashU PHI, where users can analyze documents, spreadsheets and images; develop and revise content; work through complex questions; analyze data; write code; and organize related conversations and reference materials through Projects.
Faculty and staff who need access can request a subscription through ServiceNow. Requests require departmental financial approval. Upon approval, users receive a welcome email with instructions for completing the Responsible Use Acknowledgement before their account is provisioned.
WashU is also currently working on plans to offer Claude Secure to WashU Medicine students, with more details to be shared as those plans develop.
For researchers whose needs extend beyond conversational AI tools, APIM offers more flexible ways to work with AI models, including connecting models with research tools, databases and other systems. This creates another pathway within the broader WashU enterprise AI ecosystem and provides a foundation for introducing additional research-focused capabilities over time, including Rosalind and Claude Science. As WashU’s enterprise AI ecosystem continues to grow, the focus is not simply on introducing more tools. It is to help the faculty and staff understand what is available, where each option fits and how to select an enterprise-supported tool that aligns with the needs of their work. With Claude Secure now available, WashU Medicine faculty and staff have another option within that growing ecosystem, including a new path for using generative AI in work involving PHI.
Explore the WashU AI portal to see available enterprise AI tools, compare options and find guidance on access and responsible use.