Healthcare AI Guy Weekly | 2/4

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Highlights if you’ve only got 2 minutes…

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The robot doctor will see you now

In a new New York Times op-ed, Dr. Pranav Rajpurkar and Dr. Eric J. Topol explore a fascinating paradox in AI-driven healthcare: while AI often outperforms doctors working alone, combining AI with human clinicians doesn’t automatically lead to better outcomes. Their analysis highlights how physicians frequently undervalue AI insights, reducing its potential benefits. The key, they argue, is a thoughtful division of labor—allowing AI to handle routine cases while doctors focus on complex conditions. By redefining roles, AI can enhance efficiency, reduce workload, and improve patient care, particularly in underserved areas where healthcare resources are limited. We think this is a smart path forward to help alleviate workplace shortages and improve efficiency and patient care. (link)

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AI for women’s health

Lux Capital’s Deena Shakir published a compelling analysis on the vast, untapped potential of AI in women’s health. Women’s health has long been underfunded and overlooked, creating disparities in diagnosis, treatment, and research. However, AI presents a game-changing opportunity to bridge these gaps. With the AI healthcare market set to grow from $20.8 billion in 2024 to $148 billion by 2029, its potential to revolutionize women’s health is immense. AI can enhance diagnosis, personalize treatments, expand healthcare access, and diversify research, addressing conditions like endometriosis, menopause, and maternal health. Despite challenges like bias and data privacy, AI-driven innovation could unlock a trillion-dollar market while improving outcomes for millions of women globally. (link)

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AI medical scribes are having a moment

AI-powered medical scribes are rapidly gaining traction as health systems seek solutions to clinician burnout. Historically slow to adopt new tech, hospitals are embracing AI scribes from both Big Tech and startups, with investors pouring $800 million into the space in 2024. Unlike electronic health records, which take years to implement, AI scribes can move from pilot to full deployment in months. However, adoption remains limited to certain specialties like primary care, as the technology struggles with nuanced fields such as psychiatry and surgery. Key challenges and open opportunities for folks to build include improving pre-chart planning and adapting to individual providers’ documentation styles, so there is still runway here. (link)

Tools & Partnerships 🔧

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

TOOLS

• Abridge launches genAI tool for emergency medicine: Abridge launched a new gen AI product for emergency care, and it's currently in use at several health systems including Deaconess Health System, Emory Healthcare, Johns Hopkins Medicine and UChicago Medicine. (link)

• Nabla’s AI best practices: Nabla just released a top-tier resource showcasing its best practices for AI documentation based on years of experience working alongside clinical leaders to fine-tune its own platform. The paper spells out the A to Z of Nabla’s exact evaluation methods, complete with real-world examples highlighting the importance of rigorous evaluation, progressive rollouts, and active clinician feedback. (link)

• MIT’s ChromoGen AI predicts 3D genomes in minutes: MIT researchers unveiled ChromoGen, an AI model that predicts 3D genome structures in minutes instead of days and enables DNA analysis and how if impacts cell function and disease. (link)

• AI-powered MUNIS revolutionizes vaccine target discovery: Ragon Institute and MIT scientists unveiled MUNIS, an AI tool that accurately IDs viral targets to speed up vaccine design and outperform traditional lab methods. (link)

• Microsoft launches APU to explore AI’s societal impact: Microsoft is forming a new unit called the Advanced Planning Unit (APU) within its AI division to study AI's implications for society, health, and work. (link)

• Bunkerhill Health wins first FDA clearance for AI chest CT: Bunkerhill Health achieved FDA clearance for Bunkerhill AVC, an AI solution that detects and quantifies aortic valve calcification from non-gated, non-contrast Chest CT. This clearance builds on Bunkerhill’s suite of cardiology AI solutions for opportunistic detection of cardiovascular disease. (link)

• Inato rolls out AI for patient prescreening for clinical trial enrollment: Health tech company Inato developed an AI-powered patient prescreening tool to make it easier and faster for research sites to assess patient eligibility for clinical trial opportunities. (link)

PARTNERSHIPS

• Abridge + UNC Health: UNC Health, one of the largest and most comprehensive healthcare systems in the southeast, is expanding the use of Abridge across its network of thousands of clinicians. (link)

• Press Ganey + Microsoft: Press Ganey inked a strategic partnership with Microsoft to leverage their AI and cloud computing capabilities. The patient experience monitoring company plans to bring new generative AI tools to market, including ambient listening for patient satisfaction. (link)

• AWS + Aidoc: The cloud services provider announced a partnership with the inpatient risk monitoring platform, which includes a multiyear investment into Aidoc’s CARE Foundation Model. (link)

• Flatiron OncoEMR + DeepScribe: The cloud-based EMR for oncology integrated the AI ambient scribe into its platform. (link)

Deal Desk 💸 

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

FUNDING

• ElevenLabs, a London-based AI audio technology developer, raised $180M in Series C funding. a16z and ICONIQ Growth led the round and were joined by NEA, World Innovation Lab, Valor, Endeavor Catalyst Fund, Lunate, existing investors Sequoia Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Smash Capital, and others. (link)

• Rad AI, an SF-based maker of AI tools for radiologists, raised $60M in Series C funding at a $525M valuation. Transformation Capital led, and was joined by insiders Khosla Ventures, World Innovation Lab, UP2398, Kickstart Fund, OCV Partners, and Cone Health. (link)

• Quibim, an imaging AI developer, raised a $50M Series A co-led by Asabys Partners and Buenavista, with additional backing from UI Investissements, GoHub Ventures, and others. (link)

• SafelyYou, an SF-based AI-powered senior living care provider, raised $43M in Series C funding. Touring Capital led the round and was joined by Foundation Capital, Omega Healthcare Investors, Founders Fund, and others. (link)

• VideaHealth, a Boston-based dental AI platform developer, raised $40M in Series B funding. Threshold Ventures led the round and was joined by Avenir Ventures, BAM Ventures, and existing investors Spark Capital, Zetta Venture Partners, and Pillar VC. (link)

• Kode Health, a medical coding platform, raised $27M in Series B funding. Noro-Moseley led, and was joined by Mercury, FCA Venture Partners, Epsilon Innovation Fund, and 111 West Capital. (link)

• C the Signs, an AI platform for detecting cancer, raised $8M from Khosla Ventures. C the Signs has already been deployed by the NHS and is showing interesting data in detecting breast and ovarian cancer early, and will use the funding to expand to the US. (link)

• Waterlily, an SF-based AI-powered long-term care predictions provider, raised $7M in seed funding. Brewer Lane Ventures led the round and was joined by Genworth, Nationwide, Edward Jones, and others. (link)

• Medsender, a New York provider of medical assistant automation solutions, raised $5M in Series A funding led by Ballast Point Ventures. (link)

• Medow Health, an AI copilot for medical specialists, raised a $2M Seed round. (link)

• Suki, an ambient AI documentation provider, landed an undisclosed investment from Zoom. (link)

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

• Sword Health + Surgery Hero: Sword Health acquired Surgery Hero, the “world’s first digital clinic for surgery.” Surgery Hero already supports over 10M people through its work with the NHS, and integrating its prehabilitation services with Sword’s AI musculoskeletal care platform will give patients a unified solution for support during critical transitions before and after surgery. (link)

Other Relevant News 🔍

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

• ChatGPT eases radiology reporting in new report (link)

• The AI use cases leaders want (link)

• Why Cedars-Sinai named its 1st chief AI officer (link)

• An updated guide for which AI you should use in early 2025 (link)

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Visuals of the Week 📸

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