Healthcare AI Guy Weekly Newsletter | 2/20

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Our Picks ✨

Highlights if you’ve only got 2 minutes…

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Fierce Healthcare's top health AI companies of 2024

Fierce Healthcare released its sixth annual ‘Fierce 15’ honorees. Each company is utilizing innovative approaches, including AI and virtual care, to address various healthcare challenges, demonstrating significant potential and industry recognition through notable investments and partnerships. Here are high-level summaries for the four healthcare AI names within the Fierce 15:

• Intuition Robotics: Developed ElliQ, a robot companion aimed at reducing loneliness among older adults through AI-driven interaction, health reminders, and social engagement. They are expanding access through partnerships with healthcare providers.

• Hello Heart: Offers a digital health coaching platform for cardiovascular health, working with over 110 employers and health plans. They aim to expand access and have raised over $138M, focusing on reducing healthcare disparities and improving heart health monitoring.

• Abridge: Utilizes AI to convert patient-clinician conversations into structured clinical note drafts, integrated with EMRs. They have raised $62.5M in total and are partnered with major healthcare systems, aiming to expand their technology to more specialties.

• CareSyntax: Uses AI, automation, and analytics to improve surgical outcomes, demonstrating significant revenue growth and global partnerships. They aim to manage the total value of surgical care.

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Y Combinator requests for AI in healthcare

World famous (dare I say ‘gold standard’) startup incubator, Y Combinator (YC), released what they call ‘Request for Startups’ — ideas and categories they'd like to see more people working on. On that list of 20 ideas, three stood out to us that are in the realm of healthcare AI. For each area, we included companies we know of that are tackling these issues today.

• A way to end cancer: Using MRI technology, which can detect very small cancer masses, could significantly decrease cancer deaths by enabling early diagnosis. However, widespread adoption faces challenges such as high costs, potential for false positives, and the need for vast increases in MRI capacity. Addressing these issues requires advances in MRI technology, AI for scan interpretation, and new business models. Companies such as Ezra (which we reported on last week) are tackling this problem.

• Foundation models for biological systems: Foundation models built around the vast amount of data we now have will not only enable scientists to know what path to pursue much quicker than before but also have the potential to unlock new scientific approaches to disease. Foundation models built around text and images are enabling the next generation of consumer products; YC believes foundation models built around biological systems will do the same for healthcare. Companies offering these models include superbio.ai (a exclusive Healthcare AI Guy report on them coming soon..)

• Eliminating middlemen in healthcare: The US spends more money per person on healthcare than any other developed nation, yet our patient outcomes are no better. Much of the spend goes to paying middlemen (those not directly providing care to patients). A recent report on medicare spending on drugs found that 70% of spend went to middlemen (primarily PBMs, wholesalers, and pharmacies) and only 30% to the pharmaceutical companies that make the drugs. Similar dynamics exist in every other vertical — hospital care, medical equipment, insurance, etc. There are many ways startups could attack these inefficiencies, from using AI to automate repetitive human jobs to exploring new and better business models for providing care. Companies such as Forward Health (which doesn’t accept health insurance, instead charges a flat rate) are offering innovative business models to reduce total costs.

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Tool Box 🧰

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

LATEST TOOLS

• Doximity doubles down on AI-powered technology: Doximity reported Q3 2024 earnings and emphasized focus on AI products and investment. Doximity offers DocsGPT, an AI writing assistant, and leverages AI to personalize its news feed for physicians. The company plans to continue rolling out new innovations to help streamline tasks for physicians. (link)

• Machine Learning for utilization predictions: A study demonstrated that a machine learning approach can predict avoidable ED and hospital utilization for Medicaid patients with 90% accuracy. When compared to CMS data from 2017-2019 across 26 states, Waymark Signal was 3x better at identifying at-risk patients and 10x better at predicting costs than conventional Medicaid risk models. (link)

• Docus: Your health decisions, validated by top doctors. (link)

• Diet Helper GPT: Your path to healthier eating, personalized just for you. (link)

Deal Desk 💸 

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

FRESH FUNDING

• Freenome: an SF-based biotechnology company developing blood tests for early cancer detection, raised $254M in funding. Roche led the round and was joined by a16z Life Sciences Growth Fund, BrightEdge Ventures, ARK Investments, ArrowMark Partners, Quest Diagnostics, Squarepoint Capital, and others. (link)

• Anatomy Financial: an SF-based provider of AI-powered financial automation solutions for medical and healthcare billing companies raised $7.6M in funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Meridian Street Capital, Live Oak Ventures, Cambrian Ventures, Peterson Ventures, and others. (link)

• Dina: Dina, an AI-powered home care coordination company, recently secured a $7M series B round led by First Analysis. (link)

• RapidClaims: a NYC-based provider of AI-powered medical claim automation software, raised $3.1M in seed funding. Together Fund led the round and was joined by Better Capital, Neon Fund, Peercheque, DeVC, and others. (link)

• Merit Medicine: an Austin, Texas-based provider of AI-powered technology designed to predict increases in medical costs and health insurance claims for employers, raised $2M in seed funding from LiveOak Ventures. (link)

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

• KKR + Cotiviti: Cotiviti, a healthcare analytics company, announced that private equity firm KKR will acquire a stake from Veritas Capital in a deal valuing Cotiviti at about $10.5B. Cotiviti’s AI platform helps health insurers identify improper payments and helps payers and provider organizations in risk adjustment programs. (link)

Other Relevant News 🔍

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

• A year later, has ChatGPT fulfilled its promise for hospitals? (link)

• Meet Boston Children's ChatGPT 'unicorn' (link)

• Providence allocates 5% of its budget to AI, CIO says (link)

• Nabla, AI-copilot company, appoints new CMO (link)

• Medicare Advantage AI under more fire in Washington (link)

• Washington tries to catch up with AI’s use in healthcare (link)

• The AHA laid out its priorities for 2024 (link)

Visuals of the Week 📸

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