Healthcare AI Guy Weekly | 11/5

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Our Picks ✨

Highlights if you’ve only got 2 minutes…

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AI in healthcare under Kamala, Trump

With the 2024 presidential election upon us, we thought it would be timely to examine how AI regulation might evolve under a future administration, depending on whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump takes office.

• Kamala Harris is likely to continue the Biden administration’s approach, focusing on balancing innovation and safety. Harris has played a key role in advancing the FAVES framework (fair, appropriate, valid, effective, safe) and securing voluntary AI commitments from major tech and healthcare companies. Her administration would likely emphasize public-private collaboration, transparency, and patient safety, continuing Biden's 2023 executive order on AI, and advancing regulations such as those safeguarding healthcare interoperability and privacy.

• Donald Trump, on the other hand, is expected to repeal Biden’s 2023 AI executive order, viewing it as a hindrance to innovation. His administration would likely issue a new AI order promoting free speech and innovation, with an emphasis on preventing overregulation, particularly to avoid stifling technological advancements. Trump’s administration would also focus on innovation and safety, but with a more lenient regulatory stance, especially given the Republican platform's ties to Silicon Valley.

Both candidates support AI innovation but would diverge in their regulatory approaches, with Harris continuing a balanced safety-driven approach and Trump likely adopting a less regulated, pro-innovation stance. (link)

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TIME’s best inventions of 2024

Time magazine’s ‘Best Inventions of 2024’ list saw strong representation from healthcare pioneers, which accounted for 37 of the 200 winners. Medical care breakthroughs like Northwell Health’s iNav cancer screener shared the spotlight with home care solutions like Withing’s BeamO remote check-up tool. In terms of AI in healthcare, the winners are listed below. (link)(tweet)

• Abridge: AI ambient scribe to reduce physicians' paperwork

• Laguna Insight: AI care management platform for care teams

• Google DeepMind AlphaFold 3: an AI model to understand the biological world and accelerate drug discovery

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Oracle to launch new AI-powered EHR system

Oracle Health is reinventing electronic health records with a new AI-driven platform set to be released in 2025. Built on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, it features voice-activated navigation, a clinical AI agent, and Oracle Health Data Intelligence, merging data from over 300 sources to provide tailored insights. The platform aims to automate workflows, streamline appointment prep, and empower personalized care, allowing providers to focus more on patient care than documentation. Oracle is also applying for Qualified Health Information Network (QHIN) status to facilitate seamless data exchange, signaling its ambition to lead in interoperability. The platform represents Oracle’s ambitious push to modernize healthcare tech and try to take some market share from Epic. (link)

Tools & Partnerships 🔧

Latest on business, consumer, and clinical healthcare AI tools and partnerships…

TOOLS

• New AI model predicts early drug development: Biotech startup Iambic Therapeutics just revealed Enchant, an AI platform designed to predict how drug candidates perform in human trials before leaving the lab. Enchant's multimodal AI combines lab data with clinical input to predict drug success early, achieving a 74% accuracy in human drug interactions, up from the 58% SOTA. (link)

• Athenahealth debuts AI scribe product with Suki, iScribe: The new product, Ambient Notes, is launching with AI scribe providers Suki AI and iScribe AI from iScribe Health. Athena hopes that smaller provider groups who may be hesitant to jump into the AI scribing space will have flexibility to test different providers. (link)

• 400+ healthcare organizations use Microsoft's DAX Copilot: DAX Copilot from Nuance helps to automate clinical documentation. "With DAX Copilot, more than 400 healthcare organizations are increasing physician productivity and reducing burnout," CEO Satya Nadella. (link)

• Mila Health launches AI-powered provider assistant: The patient engagement vendor released its flagship AI solution of the same name and announced implementations at provider organizations including Aayu Clinic, MIMIT Health, and Best Practices Inpatient Care. (link)

• Avandra launches out of stealth: The medical imaging clinical data network launched out of stealth; it plans to sell to biopharma, medical research, and AI companies. (link)

• ChatGPT rolls out live internet search: Knowledge cutoff gone! Now ChatGPT has access to real-time information, including health-related questions. (link)

PARTNERSHIPS

• Thrive Global + Function Health: Behavioral health tech company Thrive Global and AI-powered preventive health platform Function Health launched a health coaching partnership, declaring it is the first “personalized and proactive health testing benefit” on the market for employees. (link)

• Net Health + Tali: The EHR for wound care, VBC, and other niche applications announced it would integrate the Tali AI ambient scribe and voice assistant. (link)

• Ballad Health + MedAware: Ballad Health partners with MedAware to leverage its AI platform to improve patient safety and optimize pharmacy workflows. (link)

Deal Desk 💸 

Spotlight on latest capital raises, M&A, and investments…

FUNDING

• INBRAIN Neuroelectronics, a Barcelona-based brain-computer interface therapeutics platform, raised $50M in Series B funding. imec.xpand led the round and was joined by EIC Fund, Fond ICO Next Tech, CDTI-Innvierte, Avançsa, and existing investors Asabys Partners, Aliath Bioventures and Vsquared. (link)

• OneStep, an Israel-based smartphone motion analysis startup raised $36M in Series B funding. Team8 and Vintage Investment Partners led, with participation from existing investors Aleph, 10D, and LionBird. (link)

• Aignostics, an AI company that turns multi-modal pathology data into insights, raised $34M in Series B financing. ATHOS led with investments from Mayo Clinic and others. (link)

• Archon Biosciences, an AI-powered biotech spun out of a Nobel prize-winning computational protein design lab, emerged from stealth with $20M in seed financing. Madrona Ventures led with participation from others. (link)

• Semble, a London-based integrated healthcare system, raised $15M in Series B funding. Mercia Ventures led the round and was joined by Octopus Ventures, Smedvig Ventures, and Triple Point. (link)

• Vara, a Berlin-based early breast cancer detection AI platform, raised $8.9M in funding. Smart Family Office, FJH, and IBB Ventures led the round and were joined by Merantix, VI Partners, and EQT Foundation. (link)

• Definition Health, a UK-based AI-powered surgical platform secured $7.5M in pre-seed funding for surgical care with innovative predictive AI. (link)

• CredibleMind, a digital mental health platform that captures data to drive outcomes in behavioral health, secured $7.5M in Series A funding led by Horizon Mutual Holdings. (link)

• Hello Patient, an AI phone agents for medical practices startup launched out of stealth with $6.3M in seed funding backed by 8VC, Bling Capital, Max Ventures, and others. (link)

• Starget Pharma, an AI-powered targeted radiotherapy for cancer startup raised $5.1M in funding from Cancer Focus, an MD Anderson Cancer Center fund. (link)

• Cornerstone AI, a San Francisco-based healthcare-data cleaning AI software solution, raised $5M in seed funding. Acrew Capital led the round and was joined by Travis May, Web Sun, Arif Nathoo, and existing investors Initiate Ventures, and Healthy Ventures. (link)

• Ataraxis AI, a NYC-based AI precision medicine developer, raised $4M in seed funding. Giant Ventures and Obvious Ventures led the round and were joined by angel investors. (link)

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

• Gradient Health + DataAppraisal: The medical imaging clinical dataset vendor acquired the clinical data and AI analytics company. (link)

• Oura + Sparta Science: Health-tracking ring maker Oura announced it has agreed to acquire data company Sparta Science, which offers a platform that collects and analyzes health and performance information. (link)

Other Relevant News 🔍

News, podcasts, blogs, tweets, resources, etc… 

• Entities vying for market share in the healthcare AI governance space (link)

• Innovaccer’s state of AI report: AI during the great burnout (link)

• One to Zero: Insightful take on Marc Andreessen's tweet about declining trust in physicians and hospitals (link)

• Elon Musk solicits medical images for his AI chatbot Grok (link)

Visuals of the Week 📸

Funny memes, cool pics, and interesting data from around the web…