Healthcare AI Guy Weekly | 9/10

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Highlights if you’ve only got 2 minutes…

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TIME’s 100 most influential people in AI

TIME just unveiled its annual TIME100 AI list, spotlighting leaders driving AI's technological transformation. This year’s list highlights the rapid evolution of healthcare AI, featuring innovators like Zack Dvey-Aharon of AEYE Health, whose diagnostic AI for retinal imaging demonstrates AI's real-world potential to improve lives. This list wasn’t without controversy though, as surprise names such as Scarlett Johansson were also listed… Listed below are some of the healthcare AI folks. (link)

• Daphne Koller, Founder and CEO, Insitro

• Shiv Rao, Co-founder and CEO, Abridge

• Zack Dvey-Aharon, Co-founder and CEO, AEYE Health

• Chris Mansi, Co-founder, Viz.ai

• Sarah Gurev, Co-lead author on the EveScape project

• John Jumper, Director and AlphaFold team lead, Google DeepMind

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Ambience rolls out at John Muir Health

In yet another AI scribe story, Ambience Healthcare’s ambient AI tech is rolling out at CA-based John Muir Health, with “16 specialties accounted for” across two facilities and a network north of 1k physicians. Ambience’s genAI platform, which is fully integrated with Epic, will enable Ambience's AI medical scribe and suite of generative AI products to read from and write information directly to Epic on behalf of and under the oversight of JMH clinicians. Fortune’s coverage of the launch included some good insight into the evolution of Ambience’s platform and the roots of the partnership, with John Muir’s CMIO sharing that her doctors “aren’t just adopting the technology, they’re latching onto it.” (link)

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Google DeepMind reveals ‘AlphaProteo’

Google DeepMind just unveiled AlphaProteo, a groundbreaking AI system that designs custom proteins to bind with specific molecular targets, potentially turbocharging drug discovery and cancer research. Here are the highlights:

• AlphaProteo creates proteins that stick to specific targets like a biological lock and key, which is 3 to 300 times better at creating strong-binding proteins than current methods.

• The AI successfully designed binders for 7 out of 8 diverse targets, including cancer-related proteins.

• Independent tests showed some AlphaProteo designs could stop SARS-CoV-2 (Covid) from infecting cells and slash years of lab work down to days or weeks.

AlphaProteo could help us block viruses, fight cancer, and treat diseases in new ways using more targeted treatment approaches that could have far less side effects. This could dramatically accelerate drug discovery, potentially saving billions in R&D costs and bring life-saving treatments to patients faster. (link)

Tools & Partnerships 🔧

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

TOOLS

• AI spots cancer earlier than ever: Researchers recently developed an AI tool called AINU that can differentiate cancer cells from normal cells and detect early stages of viral infection, by analyzing high-resolution images of cell nuclei. The tool can accurately identify stem cells too, which could accelerate stem cell research without relying on animal testing. (link)

• Generative AI meets CRISPR gene editing: Researchers at Profluent Bio used AI to successfully create OpenCRISPR-1, a novel gene-editing tool that matches or surpasses the performance and safety of current CRISPR systems. OpenCRISPR-1 helps to treat genetic diseases in the safest, fastest, and most personalized way possible. (link)

• AI tools help early dementia detection: Scientists from the Universities of Edinburgh and Dundee are launching a massive AI-driven study of over 1.6 million brain scans to develop tools for early dementia prediction and diagnosis. The study will match image data with linked health records to identify patterns associated with dementia risk. (link)

• Elation Health rolls out AI scribe for primary care docs: The healthtech company is offering a new ambient note generation product, called Note Assist, that is embedded in its EHR platform, designed for the complex patient visit requirements of primary care. (link)

• Harrison.ai launches radiology-specific AI model: Australian health tech company Harrison.ai has unveiled what it considers to be a "groundbreaking" radiology-specific vision language model designed to excel at radiology tasks. It's part of the startup's broader goal to use AI automation to scale the global capacity of healthcare. (link)

• Swoop launches as AI-based marketing platform for pharma: New Mountain Capital launched Swoop, an AI-based marketing platform for pharma. Swoop is being spun out of another New Mountain Capital investment, Real Chemistry, which provides analytics to the life sciences industry. (link)

• OMNY Health data release: The health data platform released a new GLP-1 data network that gives health systems and AI developers access to info on over half a million patients’ GLP-1 use, SDoH factors, and demographic data. (link)

• Qventus new AI assistants: The AI-powered facility scheduling platform released AI Operational Assistants that will integrate into their Perioperative and Inpatient products. (link)

PARTNERSHIPS

• MUSC + SoundHound: MUSC Health is rolling out SoundHound’s AI agent to help patients take the self-service route for more of their care needs. The partnership arrives less than a month after SoundHound acquired Amelia AI for $80M, which included conversational AI tech and an all-important Epic integration to enable personalized healthcare responses. (link)

• Google + Salcit Technologies: Google partnered with Indian startup Salcit Technologies to develop AI that detects tuberculosis and other diseases from cough sounds. (link)

• Corti: The AI clinician assistant announced three partnerships—Northland & Companies, a medical documentation management and public safety logging platform; Voice Products Inc., which offers virtual medical scribes; and RelyMD, a telehealth platform. (link)  

• MultiCare Health System + Azra AI: The health system selected Azra AI’s workflow automation solution to boost operational efficiency and patient outcomes and experience. (link)

• Talkdesk + Epic: Talkdesk’s AI contact center’s agent assistant, Copilot, is now embedded in Epic’ EHR vendor’s customer relationship management platform. (link) 

Deal Desk 💸 

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

FUNDING

• OpenAI, an AI research organization, is in talks to raise new funding at a valuation north of $100B, led by a $1B investment from existing backer Thrive Capital. Microsoft also would return. (link)

• Superluminal Medicines, a Waltham, MA generative biology and chemistry startup, raised $120M in Series A funding. RA Capital Management led, and was joined by Catalio Capital, Eli Lilly, Cooley and insiders Insight Partners, NVentures, and Gaingels. (link)

• Rejoy Health, a pioneer in AI-powered healthcare solutions, announced today the successful completion of a significant funding round, valuing the company at $125M. (link)

• Noetik, an AI-native biotech building models for cancer, closed a $40M Series A financing round. The financing was led by Polaris Partners with participation from new investors Khosla Ventures, Wittington Ventures and Breakout Ventures. (link)

• Thatch, an SF-based ICHRA health benefits startup, raised $38M in Series A funding co-led by Index Ventures and General Catalyst. (link)

• Sounder Benefits, an AI-driven benefits healthtech company, launched from the Redesign Health incubator with $7.5M. (link)

• ZipBio, a Seattle-based generative AI platform for gene and protein compression, raised $4M in seed funding. NFX led and was joined by MoreVC. (link)

• Arvo, a São Paulo, Brazil-based healthcare transactions AI platform, raised $4.5M in funding. Canary and K50 funds led the round and were joined by Latitud, Preface, and Endeavor Scale-Up Ventures. (link)

• MyndYou, an AI-enabled virtual care assistant, raised a strategic investment from WindRose Health Partners. (link)

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

• Apixio + Varis + The Rawlings Group, private equity firm New Mountain Capital merged three healthtech companies in a $3B deal to be a top player in the AI-powered payment integrity market. (link)

GRANTS

• Mayo Clinic, an MN-based leading medical center, received a $10M gift to launch an AI education program. The gift, provided by the Harper Family Foundation, will enable the health system to launch the Mayo Clinic Harper Family Foundation AI Education in Medicine Program. (link)

Other Relevant News 🔍

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

• 11 health systems leading in AI (link)

• Patients are warming up to AI in new Talkdesk survey (link)

• AI regulation is coming, Fortune 500 companies ready for impact (link)

• 5 AI projects move forward at children's hospital (link)

• Mount Sinai Health System AI spinoff lands $21M (link)

• Gen AI 'mission creep' hazardous for health systems (link)

Visuals of the Week 📸

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