Healthcare AI Guy Weekly | 6/18

Our Picks ✨

Highlights if you’ve only got 2 minutes…

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Healthcare AI investment boom

Digital transformation in health systems is crucial to addressing rising costs, workforce shortages, and aging populations. Luckily, the industry seems to be putting its money where its mouth is and momentum is continuing to grow with the promise of GenAI in healthcare. These three recent reports or stories from McKinsey, SVB, and Tempus AI’s IPO all highlight the narrative:

• McKinsey digital investment report: McKinsey shared results from a survey of 200 health system executives looking at their digital investment priorities. AI was listed at the top as having the biggest potential impact and with the most investment focus in the next two years. Successful AI, traditional machine learning, and deep learning are projected to result in net savings of up to $360B in healthcare spending! (link)

• Silicon Valley Bank healthcare AI report: SVB highlights that one in four dollars invested in healthcare is now directed toward companies utilizing AI. Venture capital deal activity in AI in healthcare has surged in the past five years, with the rate of deals growing 2x as fast as the tech industry overall. In 2023, $7.2B in US VC was invested in healthcare AI (21% of total healthcare VC), with projections for 2024 reaching $11.1B. (link)

• Tempus AI’s IPO: Tempus AI, a genomic testing and data analysis company started by Groupon’s founder, raised $441M and jumped 9% on its market debut on the NASDAQ last week, demonstrating investor appetite for healthtech + AI. (link)

Investing strategically in AI can significantly enhance healthcare delivery and efficiency and we are just getting started!

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Google announces ‘Personal Health’ AI models and agents

Google just published two new research papers, introducing an AI model that can interpret personal health data from wearable devices and an AI agent that provides detailed insights, answer health questions, and more.

• Personal Health-Large Language Model (PH-LLM): Google’s PH-LLM is a version of Gemini, its foundational model, fine-tuned to reason using data from wearables and generate coaching insights for sleep and fitness. PH-LLM performs comparably to human experts on health insights for fitness and sleep, also achieving expert performance on certification exams.

• Personal Health Insights Agent (PHIA): Google also revealed PHIA, an AI agent that combines Gemini’s language skills with code and search capabilities to analyze wearable health data. PHIA scored 84% on health insight questions, demonstrating strong reasoning and data analysis capabilities on complex queries.

Google’s research showcases AI’s potential to take health wearable tracking to the next level — going beyond generic insights to enable personalized support. Once ingrained into popular devices, these types of AI tools will put an expert fitness and nutrition coach on the wrists of every user. Pretty cool to see AI being used to help us live healthier lives. (link)(tweet)

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Providers using AI to uncover drug thefts

Healthcare executives are increasingly using AI to discover which staff members are stealing medicines and drugs. According to a 2023 Wolters Kluwer survey, the number of healthcare execs who use AI to uncover diversion (the technical term for drug theft) has nearly doubled, from 29% to 56%, since 2019.

The increasing use of AI tools comes at a time when federal and industry data show an estimated 10% of healthcare workers abuse drugs. Approximately 1% of the millions of doctors, nurses and support staff steal medicine; and 148 million controlled-substance doses were lost in 2019 – a 215% increase from the year before.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse funded the development of a machine-learning tool that helped accelerate machine-learning surveillance in hospitals nationwide. A study found the AI tool could detect missing drugs 160 days earlier than previous methods and flag transactions with high risk of theft with more than 96% accuracy. Now over 700 hospitals nationwide use the AI surveillance tool. This wasn’t on my bingo card this year but another display of AI’s ability to tackle various problems in healthcare. (link)

Tools & Partnerships 🔧

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

TOOLS

• Verily to offer GLP-1s through new AI-driven app: Google’s healthcare subsidiary Verily is pivoting its business with the introduction of a new chronic disease management solution named Lightpath. Looking to launch in 2026, Lightpath offers programs for diabetes and hypertension through an AI-powered chronic care solution. (link)

• Wheel unveils AI solution for telehealth providers: Telehealth technology platform Wheel launched its new, AI-powered solution called Horizon. Horizon will pull data from patient profiles, labs, prior case notes, and remote monitoring data to make clinically-appropriate recommendations for patients and providers. The app also helps providers identify trends across the platform. (link)

• CCS Medical unveils an AI-powered chronic care tool: CCS Medical, a chronic care management company, is taking a personalized approach to chronic care treatment adherence through its new AI tool, PropheSee. Built in partnership with Accenture, the model pools patient data to generate personalized messages to keep patients on track with their diabetes treatment. (link)

• UMass Memorial streamlines triage with AI 'Kate': UMass Memorial Medical Center is using "Kate," an AI tool from software company Mednition, to help triage emergency department patients. The software is designed to assist UMass nurses in more accurately assigning an acuity level on the Emergency Severity Index. (link)

PARTNERSHIPS

• OpenAI + Color Health: OpenAI is expanding its healthcare push in partnership with Color Health to improve cancer screening. Color Health developed an AI assistant using OpenAI’s GPT-4o model to help screen and treat cancer patients. (link)

• Abridge + Christus: Abridge entered an enterprise-wide partnership with Christus Health, a Texas-based system employing over 15k physicians across 600 care centers. The announcement included a case study pulling data from Abridge and Christus’ two-month pilot, which saw Abridge’s AI clinical documentation solution reduce clinician cognitive load by 78% while reducing their after-work documentation time by 60%. (link)

• University Hospitals + Aidoc: Cleveland-based University Hospitals added an AI platform from Aidoc to 13 of its hospitals and dozens of outpatient locations. The platform could lead to faster diagnosis and treatment for patients. (link)

• Tampa General + Palantir: The health system and the software platform are partnering to develop an AI care coordination and decision support platform. (link)

Deal Desk 💸 

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

FUNDING

• Cognigny, a developer of an AI platform designed to make contact centers more efficient including for healthcare, raised $100M in Series C funding. Eurazeo Growth led and was joined by Insight Partners, DTCP, DN Capital and several others. (link)

• Enveda, a biotechnology company using AI to translate nature into new medicines, raised $55M to add to its $119M combined Series B and B1. New investors Premji Invest, Lingotto Investment Fund, Microsoft, and The Nature Conservancy participated in the round alongside existing investors Kinnevik, True Ventures, FPV, Level Ventures, and Jazz Venture Partners. (link)

• Rivia, a Zürich, Switzerland-based developer of AI-powered data overview tools for biotech companies, raised €3M ($3.2M) in seed funding. Speedinvest led the round and was joined by Amino Collective and Nina Capital. (link)

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

• Mediktor + Sensely: The AI symptom triage solution acquired the conversational member engagement platform. (link)

• Evolent + Machinify: The VBC org acquired the AI clinical workflow automation platform. (link)

Other Relevant News 🔍

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

• AI is healthcare’s biggest wild card (link)

• Microsoft expanding TRAIN initiative to Europe (link)

• AI, biosimilars discussed during AHIP 2024 conference (link)

• New FDA transparency guidelines for AI medical devices (link)

• 'I don't ever trust Epic to be correct': Nurses raise more AI concerns (link)

• AI, cybersecurity take center stage for Cleveland Clinic (link)

• AmeriHealth exec says payers cannot be paralyzed by AI challenges (link)

PS: Someone tweeted out a video of what it looks like to refer a friend to this newsletter. This could be you! All you have to do is… share this link

Visuals of the Week 📸

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